JRARY 

ER9tTY  9f 

M  DIEGO       y 


I 


MANHOOD  of  HUMANITY 


MANHOOD  of 
HUMANITY 

The  Science  and  Art  of 
HUMAN  ENGINEERING 


BY 


ALFRED  KORZYBSKI 


NEW  YORK 

E.  P.  DUTTON  &  COMPANY 

68 1   FIFTH  AVENUE 


Copyright  1921,  by 
E.  P.  DUTTON  &  COMPANY 


All  Rights  Reserved 


First  Printing,  .  June,  1921 
Second  Printing,  August,  1981 
Third  Printing,  .  .  Dec.  19tl 
Fourth  Printing  .  Dec.,  1923 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


TO 

THE  QUICK  AND  THE  DEAD 
I  DEDICATE  THIS  WORK 


ACKNOWLEDGMENT 

The  author  and  the  publishers  acknowledge  with  grati- 
tude the  following  permissions  to  make  use  of  copyright 
material  in  this  work: 

Messrs.  D.  C.  Heath  &  Company,  for  permission  to  quote 
from  "Unified  Mathematics,"  by  Louis  C.  Karpinski,  Harry 
Y.  Benedict  and  John  W.  Calhoun. 

Messrs.  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons,  New  York  and  London,  for 
permission  to  quote  from  "Organism  as  a  Whole"  and  "Phys- 
iology of  the  Brain,"  by  Jacques  Loeb. 

Messrs.  Harper  &  Brothers,  for  permission  to  quote  from 
"From  the  Life,  Imaginary  Portraits  of  Some  Distinguished 
Americans,"  by  Harvey  O'Higgins. 

Messrs.  D.  Appleton  &  Company,  for  permission  to  quote 
from  "Corporation  Finance,"  by  E.  S.  Mead. 

Messrs.  J.  B.  Lippincott  Company,  for  permission  to 
quote  from  "Forced  Movements,"  by  Jacques  Loeb. 

Princeton  University  Press,  for  permission  to  quote  from 
"Heredity  and  Environment,"  by  Edwin  Grant  Conklin. 

Columbia  University  Press,  for  permission  to  quote  from 
"The  Human  Worth  of  Rigorous  Thinking,"  by  C.  J. 
Keyset. 

The  Rockefeller  Institute  for  Medical  Research,  for  per- 
mission to  quote  from  The  Journal  of  Experimental  Medi- 
cine, Vol.  27. 

The  New  School  for  Social  Research,  for  permission  to 
quote  from  "An  Outline  of  the  History  of  the  Western 
European  Mind,"  by  James  Harvey  Robinson. 

The  Engineering  Magazine  Company,  for  permission  to 
quote  from  "Mastering  Power  Production,"  by  Walter  N. 
Polakov. 


PREFACE 

book  is  primarily  a  study  of  Man  and  ulti- 
mately embraces  all  the  great  qualities  and  prob- 
lems of  Man.  As  a  study  of  Man  it  takes  into  consider- 
ation all  the  characteristics  which  make  Man  what  he 
is.  If  some  readers  do  note  the  absence  of  certain 
expressions  familiar  to  them,  it  does  not  mean  that 
the  author  does  not  feel  or  think  as  many  other  peo- 
ple— he  does — and  very  much  so;  but  in  this  book 
an  effort  has  been  made  to  approach  the  problem  of 
Man  from  a  scientific-mathematical  point  of  view, 
and  therefore  great  pains  have  been  taken  not  to 
use  words  insufficiently  defined,  or  words  with  many 
meanings.  The  author  has  done  his  utmost  to  use 
such  words  as  convey  only  the  meaning  intended, 
and  in  the  case  of  some  words,  such  as  "spiritual," 
there  has  been  superadded  the  word  "so-called,"  not 
because  the  author  has  any  belief  or  disbelief  in  such 
phenomena ;  there  is  no  need  for  beliefs  because  some 
such  phenomena  exist,  no  matter  what  we  may  think 
of  them  or  by  what  name  we  call  them ;  but  because 
the  word  "spiritual"  is  not  scientifically  defined,  and 
every  individual  understands  and  uses  this  word  in 
a  personal  and  private  way.  To  be  mpersonal  the 


x  PREFACE 

author  has  had  to  indicate  this  element  by  adding 
"so-called."  I  repeat  once  again  that  this  book  is 
not  a  "materialistic"  or  a  "spiritualistic"  book — it  is 
a  study  of  "Man"  and  therefore  does  and  should 
include  materialistic  as  well  as  spiritual  phenomena 
because  only  the  complex  of  these  phenomena  con- 
stitutes the  complex  of  Man. 

The  problem  has  not  been  approached  from  the 
point  of  view  of  any  private  doctrine  or  creed,  but 
from  a  mathematical,  an  engineering,  point  of  view, 
which  is  impersonal  and  passionless.  It  is  obvious 
that  to  be  able  to  speak  about  the  great  affairs  of 
Man,  his  spiritual,  moral,  physical,  economic,  social 
or  political  status,  it  must  first  be  ascertained  what 
Man  is — what  is  his  real  nature  and  what  are  the 
basic  laws  of  his  nature.  If  we  succeed  in  finding 
the  laws  of  human  nature,  all  the  rest  will  be  a  com- 
paratively easy  task — the  ethical,  social,  economic 
and  political  status  of  Man  should  be  in  accord  with 
the  laws  of  his  nature;  then  civilization  will  be  a 
human  civilization — a  permanent  and  peaceful  one — - 
not  before. 

It  is  useless  to  argue  if  electricity  be  "natural"  or 
"jwpmiatural,"  of  "material"  or  of  "spiritual" 
origin.  As  a  matter  of  fact  we  do  not  ask  these 
questions  in  studying  electricity;  we  endeavor  to  find 
out  the  natural  laws  governing  it  and  in  handling 
live  wires  we  do  not  argue  or  speculate  about  them — 


PREFACE  xi 

we  use  rubber  gloves,  etc.  It  will  be  the  same  with 
Man  and  the  great  affairs  of  Man — we  have,  first 
of  all,  to  know  what  Man  is. 

Though  this  book  has  been  written  with  scrupu- 
lous care  to  avoid  words  or  terms  of  vague  mean- 
ing— and  though  it  often  may  seem  coldly  critical 
of  things  metaphysical,  it  has  not  been  written 
with  indifference  to  that  great,  perhaps  the  greatest, 
urge  of  the  human  heart — the  craving  for  spiritual 
truth — our  yearning  for  the  higher  potentialities  of 
that  which  we  call  "mind,"  "soul"  and  "spirit" — but 
it  has  been  written  with  the  deep  desire  to  find  the 
source  of  these  qualities,  their  scientific  significance 
and  a  scientific  proof  of  them,  so  that  they  may  be 
approached  and  studied  by  the  best  minds  of  the 
world  without  the  digressions,  and  misinterpreta- 
tions that  are  caused  by  the  color  and  the  confusion 
of  personal  emotions ;  and  if  the  book  be  read  with 
care,  it  will  be  seen  that,  though  the  clarifying  defini- 
tion of  the  classes  of  life  has  been  chiefly  used  in 
the  book  for  its  great  carrying  power  in  the  practical 
world,  its  greatest  help  will  ultimately  be  in  guiding 
the  investigation,  the  right  valuation  and  especially 
the  control  and  use  of  the  higher  human  powers. 

In  writing  this  book  I  have  been  not  only  intro- 
ducing new  ideas  and  new  methods  of  analysis,  but 
I  have  been  using  a  tongue  new  to  me.  The  original 
manuscript  was  very  crude  and  foreign  in  form,  and 


xii  PREFACE 

I  am  greatly  indebted  to  various  friends  for  their 
patient  kindness  in  correcting  the  many  errors  of  my 
poor  English. 

I  am  also  under  great  obligations  to  Walter 
Polakov,  Doctor  of  Engineering,  for  his  exceedingly 
helpful  suggestions,  not  only  in  giving  me  a  thorough 
criticism  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  Engineer,  but 
also  in  devoting  his  energies  to  organizing  the  first 
"Time-binding  Club"  where  these  problems  have 
been  discussed  and  criticized,  with  great  practical 
results. 

To  all  those  who  have  read  and  criticized  the 
manuscript  or  helped  otherwise — Professors  E.  H. 
Moore,  C.  J.  Keyser,  J.  H.  Robinson,  Burges  John- 
son, E.  A.  Ross,  A.  Petrunkevitch ;  and  Doctors  J. 
Grove-Korski,  Charles  P.  Steinmetz,  J.  P.  War- 
basse;  Robert  B.  Wolf,  Vice-President  of  the  Ameri- 
can Society  of  Mechanical  Engineers ;  Champlain  L. 
Riley,  Vice-President  of  the  American  Society  of 
Heating  and  Ventilating  Engineers;  Miss  Josephine 
Osborn;  to  the  authors,  L.  Brandeis,  E.  G.  Conklin, 
C.  J.  Keyser,  J.  Loeb,  E.  S.  Mead,  H.  O'Higgins, 
W.  Polakov,  J.  H.  Robinson,  R.  B.  Wolf,  for  their 
kind  permission  to  quote  them,  I  wish  to  express  my 
sincere  appreciation. 

I  wish  also  to  acknowledge  the  deepest  gratitude 
to  my  wife,  formerly  Mira  Edgerly,  who  has  found 
in  this  discovery  of  the  natural  law  for  the  human 


PREFACE  xiii 

class  of  life,  the  solution  of  her  life  long  search,  and 
who,  because  of  her  interest  in  my  work,  has  given 
me  incomparably  inspiring  help  and  valuable  criti- 
cism. It  is  not  an  exaggeration  to  state  that  except 
for  her  steady  and  relentless  work  and  her  time, 
which  saved  my  time,  this  book  could  not  have  been 
produced  in  such  a  comparatively  short  time. 

Mr.  Walter  Polakov  of  New  York  City,  Indus- 
trial Counsellor  and  Industrial  Engineer  in  New 
York  City,  has  kindly  consented  at  my  request  to  act, 
with  my  authority,  as  my  representative  to  whom 
any  further  queries  should  be  addressed  in  my  ab- 
sence from  America. 

To  all  other  friends  who  have  helped  in  many  per- 
sonal ways  I  express  thankfulness,  as  I  wish  also  to 
thank  John  Macrae,  Esq.,  the  Vice-President  of  E. 
P.  Button  &  Co.,  for  his  unusual  attitude  toward 
publishing  the  book. 

A.  K. 

January  17,  1921 
New  York  City. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  INTRODUCTION. 

Method  and  Processes  of  Approach  to  a  New 

Concept  of  Life I 

II.  CHILDHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 27 

III.  CLASSES  OF  LIFE 46 

IV.  WHAT  is  MAN? 66 

V.  WEALTH    93 

VI.  CAPITALISTIC  ERA no 

k 

VII.  SURVIVAL  OF  THE  FITTEST 139 

VIII.  ELEMENTS  OF  POWER 155 

IX.  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 167 

X.  CONCLUSION  204 

APPENDICES 

I.  MATHEMATICS  AND  TIME-BINDING 209 

II.  BIOLOGY  AND  TIME-BINDING 224 

III.  ENGINEERING  AND  TIME-BINDING 255 


MANHOOD  of  HUMANITY 


CHAPTER  I 
INTRODUCTION 

METHOD    AND    PROCESSES    OF    APPROACH    TO    A 
NEW  CONCEPT  OF  LIFE 

"For  a  while  he  trampled  with  impunity  on  laws 
human  and  divine  but,  as  he  was  obsessed  with  the 
delusion  that  two  and  two  makes  five,  he  fell,  at  last 
a  victim  to  the  relentless  rules  of  humble  Arithmetic. 

"  Remember,  O  stranger,  Arithmetic  is  the  first  of 
the  sciences  and  the  mother  of  safety." 

BRANDEIS. 

TT  is  the  aim  of  this  little  book  to  point  the  way 
to  a  new  science  and  art — the  science  and  art  of 
Human  Engineering.  By  Human  Engineering  I 
mean  the  science  and  art  of  directing  the  energies 
and  capacities  of  human  beings  to  the  advancement 
of  human  weal.  It  need  not  be  argued  in  these  times 
that  the  establishment  of  such  a  science — the  science 
of  human  welfare — is  an  undertaking  of  immeasur- 
able importance.  No  one  can  fail  to  see  that  its 
importance  is  supreme. 

It  is  evident  that,  if  such  a  science  is  to  be  estab- 
lished it  must  be  founded  on  ascertained  facts — it 
must  accord  with  what  is  characteristic  of  Man — it 
must  be  based  upon  a  just  conception  of  what  Man 


2  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

is — upon  a  right  understanding  of  Man's  place  in 
the  scheme  of  Nature, 

No  one  need  be  told  how  indispensable  it  is  to 
have  true  ideas — just  concepts — correct  notions — of 
the  things  with  which  we  humans  have  to  deal; 
everyone  knows  for  example,  that  to  mistake  solids 
for  surfaces  or  lines  would  wreck  the  science  and 
art  of  geometry;  anyone  knows  that  to  confuse  frac- 
tions with  whole  numbers  would  wreck  the  science 
and  art  of  arithmetic;  everyone  knows  that  to  mis- 
take vice  for  virtue  would  destroy  the  foundation  of 
ethics;  everyone  knows  that  to  mistake  a  desert 
mirage  for  a  lake  of  fresh  water  does  but  lure  the 
fainting  traveler  to  dire  disappointment  or  death. 
Now,  it  is  perfectly  clear  that  of  all  the  things  with 
which  human  beings  have  to  deal,  the  most  important 
•by  far  is  Man  himself — humankind — men,  women 
and  children.  It  follows  that  for  us  human  beings 
nothing  else  can  be  quite  so  important  as  a  clear,  true, 
just,  scientific  concept  of  Man — a  right  understand- 
ing of  what  we  as  human  beings  really  are.  For  it 
requires  no  great  wisdom,  it  needs  only  a  little  re- 
flection, to  see  that,  if  we  humans  radically  miscon- 
ceive the  nature  of  man — if  we  regard  man  as  being 
something  which  he  is  not,  whether  it  be  something 
higher  than  man  or  lower — we  thereby  commit  an 
error  so  fundamental  and  far  reaching  as  to  produce 


A  NEW  CONCEPT  or  LITE  3 

every  manner  of  confusion  and  disaster  in  individual 
life,  in  community  life  and  in  the  life  of  the  race. 

The  question  we  have,  therefore,  to  consider  first 
of  all  is  fundamentally:  What  is  Man?  What  is  a 
man?  What  is  a  human  being?  What  is  the  defin- 
ing or  characteristic  mark  of  humanity?  To  this 
question  two  answers  and  only  two  have  been  given 
in  the  course  of  the  ages,  and  they  are  both  of  them 
current  to-day.  One  of  the  answers  is  biological — 
man  is  an  animal,  a  certain  kind  of  animal;  the  other 
answer  is  a  mixture  partly  biological  and  partly 
mythological  or  partly  biological  and  partly  philo- 
sophical— man  is  a  combination  or  union  of  animal 
with  something  supernatural.  An  important  part  of 
my  task  will  be  to  show  that  both  of  these  answers 
are  radically  wrong  and  that,  beyond  all  things  else, 
they  are  primarily  responsible  for  what  is  dismal  in 
the  life  and  history  of  humankind.  This  done,  the 
question  remains:  What  is  Man?  I  hope  to  show 
clearly  and  convincingly  that  the  answer  is  to  be  found 
in  the  patent  fact  that  human  beings  possess  in  varying 
degrees  a  certain  natural  faculty  or  power  or  capacity 
which  serves  at  once  to  give  them  their  appropriate 
dignity  as  human  beings  and  to  discriminate  them, 
not  only  from  the  minerals  and  the  plants  but  also 
from  the  world  of  animals,  this  peculiar  or  charac- 
teristic human  faculty  or  power  or  capacity  I  shall 


4  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

call  the  time-binding  faculty  or  time-binding  power 
or  time-binding  capacity.  What  I  mean  by  time-bind- 
ing will  be  clearly  and  fully  explained  in  the  course  of 
the  discussion,  and  when  it  has  been  made  clear,  the 
question — What  Is  Man  ? — will  be  answered  by  say- 
ing that  man  is  a  being  naturally  endowed  with  time- 
binding  capacity — that  a  human  being  is  a  time- 
binder — that  men,  women  and  children  constitute  the 
time-binding  class  of  life. 

There  will  then  remain  the  great  task  of  indicating 
and  in  a  measure  sketching  some  of  the  important 
j  ways  in  which  the  true  conception  of  man  as  man 
will  transform  our  views  of  human  society  and  the 
world,  affect  our  human  conduct  and  give  us  a  grow- 
ing body  of  scientific  wisdom  regarding  the  welfare 
of  mankind  including  all  posterity. 

The  purpose  of  this  introductory  chapter  is  to 
consider  certain  general  matters  of  a  preliminary 
nature — to  indicate  the  spirit  of  the  undertaking — 
to  provide  a  short  course  of  approach  and  prepara- 
tion— to  clear  the  deck,  so  to  speak,  and  make  ready 
for  action. 

There  are  two  ways  to  slide  easily  through  life: 
Namely,  to  believe  everything,  or  to  doubt  every- 
thing; both  ways  save  us  from  thinking.  The  ma- 
jority take  the  line  of  least  resistance,  preferring  to 
have  their  thinking  done  for  them ;  they  accept  ready- 
made  individual,  private  doctrines  as  their  own  and 


A  NEW  CONCEPT  OF  LIFE  5 

follow  them  more  or  less  blindly.  Every  generation 
looks  upon  its  own  creeds  as  true  and  permanent  and 
has  a  mingled  smile  of  pity  and  contempt  for  the 
prejudices  of  the  past.  For  two  hundred  or  more 
generations  of  our  historical  past  this  attitude  has 
been  repeated  two  hundred  or  more  times,  and  unless 
we  are  very  careful  our  children  will  have  the  same 
attitude  toward  us. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  humanity  belongs  to 
a  class  of  life  which  to  a  large  extent  determines  its 
own  destinies,  establishes  its  own  rules  of  education 
and  conduct,  and  thus  influences  every  step  we  are 
free  to  take  within  the  structure  of  our  social  system. 
But  the  power  of  human  beings  to  determine  their 
own  destinies  is  limited  by  natural  law,  Nature's  law. 
It  is  the  counsel  of  wisdom  to  discover  the  laws  of 
nature,  including  the  laws  of  human  nature,  and  then 
to  live  in  accordance  with  them.  The  opposite  is 
folly. 

A  farmer  must  know  the  natural  laws  that  govern 
his  wheat,  or  corn,  or  cow,  as  otherwise  he  will  not 
have  satisfactory  crops,  or  the  quality  and  abundance 
of  milk  he  desires,  whereas  the  knowledge  of  these 
laws  enables  him  to  produce  the  most  favorable  con- 
ditions for  his  plants  and  animals,  and  thereby  to 
gain  the  desired  results. 

Humanity  must  know  the  natural  laws  for  humans, 
otherwise  humans  will  not  create  the  conditions  and 


6  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

the  customs  that  regulate  human  activities  which  will 
make  it  possible  for  them  to  have  the  most  favorable 
circumstances  for  the  fullest  human  development  in 
life;  which  means  the  release  of  the  maximum  natu- 
ral-creative energy  and  expression  in  mental,  moral, 
material  and  spiritual  and  all  the  other  great  fields 
of  human  activities,  resulting  in  happiness  in  life  and 
in  work — collectively  and  individually — because  the 
conditions  of  the  earning  of  a  livelihood  influence  and 
shape  all  our  mental  processes  and  activities,  the 
quality  and  the  form  of  human  inter-relationship. 

Every  human  achievement,  be  it  a  scientific  dis- 
covery, a  picture,  a  statue,  a  temple,  a  home  or  a 
bridge,  has  to  be  conceived  in  the  mind  first — the 
plan  thought  out — before  it  can  be  made  a  reality, 
and  when  anything  is  to  be  attempted  that  involves 
any  number  of  individuals — methods  of  coordina- 
tion have  to  be  considered — the  methods  which  have 
proven  to  be  the  best  suited  for  such  undertakings 
are  engineering  methods — the  engineering  of  an  idea 
toward  a  complete  realization.  Every  engineer  has 
to  know  the  materials  with  which  he  has  to  work 
and  the  natural  laws  of  these  materials,  as  discovered 
by  observation  and  experiment  and  formulated  by 
mathematics  and  mechanics ;  else  he  can  not  calculate 
the  forces  at  his  disposal;  he  can  not  compute  the 
resistance  of  his  materials;  he  can  not  determine  the 
capacity  and  requirements  of  his  power  plant;  is 


A  NEW  CONCEPT  OF  LITE  7 

short,  he  can  not  make  the  most  profitable  use  of  his 
resources.  Lately  in  all  industries  and  particularly 
during  the  late  World  War,  which  was  itself  a 
gigantic  industrial  process,  another  factor  manifested 
itself  and  proved  to  be  of  the  utmost  importance: 
namely,  the  human  factor,  which  is  not  material  but 
is  mental,  moral,  psychological.  It  has  been  found 
that  maximum  production  may  be  attained  when  and 
only  when  the  production  is  carried  on  in  conformity 
with  certain  psychological  laws,  roughly  determined 
by  the  analysis  of  human  nature. 

Except  for  productive  human  labor,  our  globe  is 
too  small  to  support  the  human  population  now  upon 
it.  Humanity  must  produce  or  perish. 

Production  is  essentially  a  task  for  engineers;  it 
essentially  depends  upon  the  discovery  and  the  ap- 
plication of  natural  laws,  including  the  laws  of 
human  nature.  It  is,  therefore,  not  a  task  for  old 
fashioned  philosophical  speculation  nor  for  barren 
metaphysical  reasoning  in  vacuo;  it  is  a  scientific 
task  and  involves  the  coordination  and  cooperation 
of  all  the  sciences.  This  is  why  it  is  an  engineering 
task. 

For  engineering,  rightly  understood,  is  the  coor- 
dinated sum-total  of  human  knowledge  gathered 
through  the  ages,  with  mathematics  as  its  chief  in- 
strument and  guide.  Human  Engineering  will 
embody  the  theory  and  practice — -the  science  and 


8  MANHOOD  or  HUMANITY 

art — of  all  engineering  branches  united  by  a  common 
aim — the  understanding  and  welfare  of  mankind. 

Here  I  want  to  make  it  very  clear  that  mathe- 
matics is  not  what  many  people  think  it  is;  it  is  not 
a  system  of  mere  formulas  and  theorems;  but  as 
beautifully  defined  by  Professor  Cassius  J.  Keyser, 
in  his  book  The  Human  Worth  of  Rigorous  Think- 
ing (Columbia  University  Press,  1916),  mathe- 
matics is  the  science  of  "Exact  thought  or  rigorous 
thinking,"  and  one  of  its  distinctive  characteristics 
is  "precision,  sharpness,  completeness  of  definitions." 
This  quality  alone  is  sufficient  to  explain  why  people 
generally  do  not  like  mathematics  and  why  even  some 
scientists  bluntly  refuse  to  have  anything  to  do  with 
problems  wherein  mathematical  reasoning  is  in- 
volved. In  the  meantime,  mathematical  philosophy 
has  very  little,  if  anything,  to  do  with  mere  calcula- 
tions or  with  numbers  as  such  or  with  formulas;  it 
is  a  philosophy  wherein  precise,  sharp  and  rigorous 
thinking  is  essential.  Those  who  deliberately  refuse 
to  think  "rigorously" — that  is  mathematically — in 
connections  where  such  thinking  is  possible,  commit 
the  sin  of  preferring  the  worse  to  the  better;  they 
deliberately  violate  the  supreme  law  of  intellectual 
rectitude. 

Here  I  have  to  make  it  clear  that  for  the  purpose 
of  Human  Engineering  the  old  concepts  of  matter, 
space  and  time  are  sufficient  to  start  with;  they  are 


A  NEW  CONCEPT  OF  LIFE  9 

sufficient  in  much  the  same  way  as  they  have  been 
sufficient  in  the  old  science  of  mechanics.  Figura- 
tively speaking  Human  Engineering  is  a  higher  order 
of  bridge  engineering — it  aims  at  the  spanning  of  a 
gap  in  practical  life  as  well  as  in  knowledge.  The 
old  meanings  of  matter,  space  and  time  were  good 
enough  to  prevent  the  collapse  of  a  bridge ;  the  same 
understanding  of  space  and  time  as  used  in  this  book 
will  protect  society  and  humanity  from  periodical 
collapses.  The  old  mechanics  lead  directly  to  such 
a  knowledge  of  the  intrinsic  laws  governing  the  uni- 
verse as  to  suggest  the  new  mechanics.  Human 
Engineering  will  throw  a  new  light  on  many  old 
conceptions  and  will  help  the  study  and  understand- 
ing of  matter,  space  and  time  in  their  relative  mean- 
ings, and  perhaps  will  ultimately  lead  to  an  under- 
standing of  their  absolute  meanings. 

Philosophy  in  its  old  form  could  exist  only  in  the 
absence  of  engineering,  but  with  engineering  in  exist- 
ence and  daily  more  active  and  far  reaching,  the  old 
verbalistic  philosophy  and  metaphysics  have  lost  their 
reason  to  exist.  They  were  no  more  able  to  under- 
stand the  "production"  of  the  universe  and  life  than 
they  are  now  able  to  understand  or  grapple  with 
"production"  as  a  means  to  provide  a  happier  exist- 
ence for  humanity.  They  failed  because  their  vene- 
rated method  of  "speculation"  can  not  produce,  and 
its  place  must  be  taken  by  mathematical  think- 


io  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

ing.  Mathematical  reasoning  is  displacing  meta- 
physical reasoning.  Engineering  is  driving  verbal- 
istic  philosophy  out  of  existence  and  humanity  gains 
decidedly  thereby.  Only  a  few  parasites  and  "spec- 
ulators" will  mourn  the  disappearance  of  their  old 
companion  "speculation."  The  world  of  producers 
— the  predominating  majority  of  human  beings — 
will  welcome  a  philosophy  of  ordered  thought  and 
production. 

The  scientists,  all  of  them,  have  their  duties  no 
doubt,  but  they  do  not  fully  use  their  education  if 
they  do  not  try  to  broaden  their  sense  of  responsi- 
bility toward  all  mankind  instead  of  closing  them- 
selves up  in  a  narrow  specialization  where  they  find 
their  pleasure.  Neither  engineers  nor  other  scientific 
men  have  any  right  to  prefer  their  own  personal 
peace  to  the  happiness  of  mankind;  their  place  and 
their  duty  are  in  the  front  line  of  struggling  human- 
ity, not  in  the  unperturbed  ranks  of  those  who  keep 
themselves  aloof  from  life.  If  they  are  indifferent, 
or  discouraged  because  they  feel  or  think  that  they 
know  that  the  situation  is  hopeless,  it  may  be  proved 
that  undue  pessimism  is  as  dangerous  a  "religion" 
as  any  other  blind  creed.  Indeed  there  is  very  little 
difference  in  kind  between  the  medieval  fanaticism 
of  the  "holy  inquisition,"  and  modern  intolerance 
toward  new  ideas.  All  kinds  of  intellect  must  get 
together,  for  as  long  as  we  presuppose  the  situation 


A  NEW  CONCEPT  OF  LIFE  n 

to  be  hopeless,  the  situation  will  indeed  be  hopeless. 
The  spirit  of  Human  Engineering  does  not  know  the 
word  "hopeless";  for  engineers  know  that  wrong 
methods  are  alone  responsible  for  disastrous  results, 
and  that  every  situation  can  be  successfully  handled 
by  the  use  of  proper  means.  The  task  of  engineering 
science  is  not  only  to  know  but  to  know  how.  Most 
of  the  scientists  and  engineers  do  not  yet  realize  that 
their  united  judgment  would  be  invincible;  no  system 
or  class  would  care  to  disregard  it.  Their  knowl- 
edge is  the  very  force  which  makes  the  life  of  hu- 
manity pulsate.  If  the  scientists  and  the  engineers 
have  had  no  common  base  upon  which  to  unite,  a 
common  base  must  be  provided.  To-day  the  pres- 
sure of  life  is  such  that  we  cannot  go  forward  with- 
out their  coordinating  guidance.  But  first  there  must 
be  the  desire  to  act.  One  aim  of  this  book  is  to  fur- 
nish the  required  stimulus  by  showing  that  Human 
Engineering  will  rescue  us  from  the  tangle  of  private 
opinions  and  enable  us  to  deal  with  all  the  problems 
of  life  and  human  society  upon  a  scientific  basis. 

If  those  who  know  why  and  how  neglect  to  act, 
those  who  do  not  know  will  act,  and  the  world  will 
continue  to  flounder.  The  whole  history  of  mankind 
and  especially  the  present  plight  of  the  world  show 
only  too  sadly  how  dangerous  and  expensive  it  is  to 
have  the  world  governed  by  those  who  do  not  know. 

In  paying  the  price  of  this  war,  we  have  been  made 


12  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

to  realize  that  even  the  private  individual  can  not 
afford  to  live  wrapped  up  in  his  own  life  and  not 
take  his  part  in  public  affairs.  He  must  acquire  the 
habit  of  taking  his  share  of  public  responsibility. 
This  signifies  that  a  very  great  deal  of  very  simple 
work,  all  pointing  in  the  direction  of  a  greater  work, 
must  be  done  in  the  way  of  educating,  not  engineers 
and  scientific  men  only,  but  the  general  public  to  co- 
operate in  establishing  the  practice  of  Human  Engi- 
neering in  all  the  affairs  of  human  society  and  life. 

In  writing  this  book  I  have  had  to  wrestle  with 
tremendous  difficulties  in  expressing  new  thoughts 
and  in  indicating  new  methods.  The  reader  who 
stops  to  criticize  words  or  expressions  because  of 
their  more  or  less  happy  or  unhappy  use  will  miss 
the  whole  point  of  the  work.  The  reading  of  it 
should  be  done  with  a  view  to  seeing  how  much  can 
be  found  in  it  of  what  is  new  and  good  that  may  be 
elaborated  further,  and  put  into  better  form.  This 
new  enterprise  is  too  difficult  and  too  vast  for  the 
unaided  labor  of  one  man — life  is  too  short. 

The  method  used  in  this  book  in  analysing  life 
phenomena  is  essentially  an  engineering  method,  and 
as  physics  and  mechanics  alw?^  suggest  to  mathe- 
maticians new  fields  for  analysis,  it  is  not  improbable 
that  Human  Engineering  will  give  mathematicians 
new  and  interesting  fields  for  research.  The  hum- 
blest role  of  mathematicians  in  Human  Engineering 


A  NEW  CONCEPT  OF  LIFE  13 

may  be  likened  to  that  of  "Public  accountants"  whc 
put  in  order  the  affairs  of  business. 

In  relation  to  mathematics  Bertrand  Russell  has 
said:  "Logic  is  the  youth  of  mathematics,  mathe- 
matics is  the  manhood  of  logic."  This  brilliant  mot 
of  the  eminent  philosopher  of  mathematics  is  no 
doubt  just  and  is  profoundly  significant;  the  least  it 
can  teach  us  is  that  it  is  useless  to  try  to  find  a 
dividing  line  between  logic  and  mathematics,  for  no 
such  line  exists;  to  seek  for  one  serves  merely  to 
betray  one's  ignorance  of  mathematical  philosophy. 
Elsewhere  Mr.  Russell  says:  "The  hope  of  satisfac- 
tion to  our  more  human  desires,  the  hope  of  demon- 
strating that  the  world  has  this  or  that  ethical  char- 
acteristic, is  not  one  which,  so  far  as  I  can  see,  phil- 
osophy can  do  anything  whatever  to  satisfy."  By 
"philosophy"  he  means  mathematical  philosophy — a 
philosophy  that  is  rigorously  scientific,  not  vaguely 
speculative.  I  am  entirely  unable  to  agree  with  him 
that  such  a  philosophy  can  make  no  contribution  to 
ethics.  On  the  contrary,  I  contend,  and  in  this  book 
I  hope  to  show,  that  by  mathematical  philosophy, 
by  rigorously  scientific  thinking,  we  can  arrive  at  the 
true  conception  of  what  a  human  being  really  is  and 
that  in  thus  discovering  the  characteristic  nature  of 
man  we  come  to  the  secret  and  source  of  ethics.  Ethics 
as  a  science  will  investigate  and  explain  the  essential 
nature  of  man  and  the  obligations  which  the  essential 


14  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

nature  of  man  imposes  upon  human  beings.  It  will 
be  seen  that  to  live  righteously,  to  live  ethically,  is  to 
live  in  accordance  with  the  laws  of  human  nature; 
and  when  it  is  clearly  seen  that  man  is  a  natural 
being,  a  part  of  nature  literally,  then  it  will  be  seen 
that  the  laws  of  human  nature — the  only  possible 
rules  for  ethical  conduct — are  no  more  supernatural 
and  no  more  man-made  than  is  the  law  of  gravita- 
tion, for  example,  or  any  other  natural  law. 

It  is  no  cause  for  wonder  that  mathematical  think- 
ing should  lead  to  such  a  result;  for  Man  is  a  natural 
being,  man's  mind  is  a  natural  agency,  and  the  results 
of  rigorous  thinking,  far  from  being  artificial  fictions, 
are  natural  facts — natural  revelations  of  natural 
law. 

I  hope  I  have  not  given  the  impression,  by  re- 
peated allusion  to  mathematical  science,  that  this 
book  is  to  be  in  any  technical  sense  a  mathematical 
treatise.  I  have  merely  wished  to  indicate  that  the 
task  is  conceived  and  undertaken  in  the  mathematical 
spirit,  which  must  be  the  guiding  spirit  of  Human 
Engineering;  for  no  thought,  if  it  be  non-mathe- 
matical in  spirit,  can  be  trusted,  and,  although  mathe- 
maticians sometimes  make  mistakes,  the  spirit  of 
mathematics  is  always  right  and  always  sound. 

Whilst  I  do  not  intend  to  trouble  the  reader  with 
any  highly  technical  mathematical  arguments,  there 
arc  a  few  simple  mathematical  considerations  which 


A  NEW  CONCEPT  OF  LIFE  15 

anyone  of  fair  education  can  understand,  which  are 
of  exceedingly  great  importance  for  our  purpose, 
and  to  which,  therefore,  I  ask  the  reader's  best  atten- 
tion. One  of  the  ideas  is  that  of  an  arithmetical 
progression;  another  one  is  that  of  a  geometrical 
progression.  Neither  of  them  involves  anything 
more  difficult  than  the  most  ordinary  arithmetic  of 
the  secondary  school  or  the  counting  house,  but  it 
will  be  seen  that  they  throw  a  flood  of  light  upon 
many  of  the  most  important  human  concerns. 

Because  we  are  human  beings  we  are  all  of  us 
interested  in  what  we  call  progress — progress  in  law, 
in  government,  in  jurisprudence,  in  ethics,  in  phil- 
osophy, in  the  natural  sciences,  in  economics,  in  the 
fine  arts,  in  the  practical  arts,  in  the  production  and 
distribution  of  wealth,  in  all  the  affairs  affecting  the 
welfare  of  mankind.  It  is  a  fact  that  all  these  great 
matters  are  interdependent  and  interlocking;  it  is 
therefore  a  fact  of  the  utmost  importance  that  prog- 
ress in  each  of  the  cardinal  matters  must  keep  abreast 
of  progress  in  the  other  cardinal  matters  in  order  to 
keep  a  just  equilibrium,  a  proper  balance,  and  so  to 
maintain  the  integrity  and  continued  prosperity  of 
the  whole  complex  body  of  our  social  life;  it  is  a 
fact,  a  fact  of  observation,  that  in  some  of  the  great 
matters  progress  proceeds  in  accordance  with  one 
law  and  one  rate  of  advancement  and  in  others  in 
accordance  with  a  very  different  law  and  rate;  it  is 


16  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

a  fact,  a  fact  of  observation  and  sad  experience,  a 
fact  attested  by  all  history  and  made  evident  by  rea- 
son, that  owing  to  the  widely  differing  laws  and  rates 
of  progress  in  the  great  essential  concerns  of  human- 
ity, the  balance  and  equilibrium  among  the  parts  is 
disturbed,  the  strain  gradually  increases  until  a  vio- 
lent break  ensues  in  the  form  of  social  conflicts, 
insurrections,  revolutions  and  war;  it  is  a  fact  that 
the  readjustment  that  follows,  as  after  an  earth- 
quake, does  indeed  establish  a  kind  of  new  equilib- 
rium, but  it  is  an  equilibrium  born  of  violence,  and 
it  is  destined  to  be  again  disturbed  periodically  with- 
out end,  unless  by  some  science  and  art  of  Human 
Engineering  progress  in  all  the  great  matters  essen- 
tial to  human  weal  can  be  made  to  proceed  in  accord- 
ance with  one  and  the  same  law  having  its  validity 
in  the  nature  of  man. 

Taken  in  combination,  the  facts  just  stated  are  so 
extremely  important  that  they  deserve  to  be  stated 
with  the  utmost  emphasis  and  clarity.  To  this  end 
I  beg  the  reader  to  consider  very  carefully  and  side 
by  side  the  two  following  series  of  numbers.  The 
first  one  is  a  simple  geometrical  progression  — 
denoted  by  (GP)  ;  the  second  one  is  a  simple  arith- 
metical progresson  —  denoted  by 


GP  :  2,  4,  8,  16,  32,  64,  128,  256,  512,  1024,  etc.; 
AP  :  2,  4,  6,     8,  10,  12,     14,     16,     18,       20,  etc. 


A  NEW  CONCEPT  OF  LIFE  17 

For  convenience  of  comparison  I  let  them  begin 
with  the  same  number  and  for  simplicity  I  have 
taken  2  for  this  initial  term;  observe  that  in  the 
(GP)  each  term  is  got  from  the  preceding  term  by 
multiplying  by  2  and  that  in  the  (dP]  each  term 
as  got  from  its  predecessor  by  adding  2 ;  in  the  first 
series  the  multiplier  2  is  called  the  common  ratio  and 
in  the  second  series  the  repeatedly  added  2  is  called 
the  common  difference;  it  is  again  for  the  convenience 
of  comparison  that  I  have  chosen  the  same  number 
for  both  common  ratio  and  common  difference  and 
for  the  sake  of  simplicity  that  I  have  taken  for  this 
number  the  easy  number  2.  Other  choices  would 
be  logically  just  as  good. 

Why  have  I  introduced  these  two  series  ?  Because 
they  serve  to  illustrate  perfectly  two  widely  different 
laws  of  progress — two  laws  representing  vastly  dif- 
ferent rates  of  growth,  increase,  or  advancement. 

Do  not  fail  to  observe  in  this  connection  the  fol- 
lowing two  facts.  One  of  them  is  that  the  magni- 
tude of  the  terms  of  any  geometric  progression  whose 
ratio  (no  matter  how  small)  is  2  or  more  will  over- 
take and  surpass  the  magnitude  of  the  correspond- 
ing terms  of  any  arithmetical  progression,  no  matter 
how  large  the  common  difference  of  the  latter  may 
be.  The  other  fact  to  be  noted  is  that  the  greater 
the  ratio  of  a  geometric  progression,  the  more 
rapidly  do  its  successive  terms  increase;  so  that  the 


i8  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

terms  of  one  geometric  progression  may  increase  a 
thousand  or  a  million  or  a  billion  times  faster  than 
the  corresponding  terms  of  another  geometric  pro- 
gression. As  any  geometric  progression  (of  ratio 
equal  to  2  or  more),  no  matter  how  slow,  outruns 
every  arithmetic  progression,  no  matter  how  fast, 
so  one  geometric  progression  may  be  far  swifter 
than  another  one  of  the  same  type. 

To  every  one  it  will  be  obvious  that  the  two  pro- 
gressions differ  in  pace;  and  that  the  difference  be- 
tween their  corresponding  terms  becomes  increas- 
ingly larger  and  larger  the  farther  we  go;  for  in- 
stance, the  sum  of  the  first  six  terms  of  the  geomet- 
rical progression  is  126,  whereas  the  sum  of  the  first- 
six  terms  of  the  arithmetical  progression  is  only  42, 
the  difference  between  the  two  sums  being  84;  the 
sum  of  8  terms  is  510  for  the  (GP)  and  72  for 
the  (AP},  the  difference  between  these  sums  (of  only 
8  terms  each)  being  438,  already  much  larger  than 
before;  if  now  we  take  the  sums  of  the  first  10  terms, 
they  will  be  2046  and  no  having  a  difference  of 
1936;  etc.,  etc. 

Consider  now  any  two  matters  of  great  impor- 
tance for  human  weal — jurisprudence  for  example, 
and  natural  science — or  any  other  two  major  con- 
cerns of  humanity.  It  is  as  plain  as  the  noon-day 
sun  that,  if  progress  in  one  of  the  matters  advances 
according  to  the  law  of  a  geometric  progression  and 


A  NEW  CONCEPT  OF  LIFE  19 

the  other  in  accordance  with  a  law  of  an  arithmetical 
progression,  progress  in  the  former  matter  will  very 
quickly  and  ever  more  and  more  rapidly  outstrip 
progress  in  the  latter,  so  that,  if  the  two  interests 
involved  be  interdependent  (as  they  always  are),  a 
strain  is  gradually  produced  in  human  affairs,  social 
equilibrium  is  at  length  destroyed;  there  follows  a 
period  of  readjustment  by  means  of  violence  and 
force.  It  must  not  be  fancied  that  the  case  supposed 
is  merely  hypothetical.  The  whole  history  of  man- 
kind and  especially  the  present  condition  of  the  world 
unite  in  showing  that  far  from  being  merely  hypothet- 
ical, the  case  supposed  has  always  been  actual  and  is 
actual  to-day  on  a  vaster  scale  than  ever  before.  My 
contention  is  that  while  progress  in  some  of  the  great 
matters  of  human  concern  has  been  long  proceeding 
in  accordance  with  the  law  of  a  rapidly  increasing 
geometric  progression,  progress  in  the  other  matters 
of  no  less  importance  has  advanced  only  at  the  rate 
of  an  arithmetical  progression  or  at  best  at  the  rate 
of  some  geometric  progression  of  relatively  slow 
growth.  To  see  it  and  to  understand  it  we  have  to 
pay  the  small  price  of  a  little  observation  and  a  little 
meditation. 

Some  technological  invention  is  made,  like  that  of 
a  steam  engine  or  a  printing  press,  for  example;  or 
some  discovery  of  scientific  method,  like  that  of 
analytical  geometry  or  the  infinitesimal  calculus;  or 


20  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

some  discovery  of  natural  law,  like  that  of  falling 
bodies  or  the  Newtonian  law  of  gravitation.  What 
happens?  What  is  the  effect  upon  the  progress  of 
knowledge  and  invention?  The  effect  is  stimulation. 
Each  invention  leads  to  new  inventions  and  each  dis- 
covery to  new  discoveries;  invention  breeds  inven- 
tion, science  begets  science,  the  children  of  knowledge 
produce  their  kind  in  larger  and  larger  families;  the 
process  goes  on  from  decade  to  decade,  from  genera- 
tion to  generation,  and  the  spectacle  we  behold  is  that 
of  advancement  in  scientific  knowledge  and  techno- 
logical power  according  to  the  law  and  rate  of  a 
rapidly  increasing  geometric  progression  or  loga- 
rithmic function. 

And  now  what  must  we  say  of  the  so-called  sci- 
ences— the  pseudo  sciences — of  ethics  and  jurispru- 
dence and  economics  and  politics  and  government? 
For  the  answer  we  have  only  to  open  our  eyes  and 
behold  the  world.  By  virtue  of  the  advancement 
that  has  long  been  going  on  with  ever  accelerated 
logarithmic  rapidity  in  invention,  in  mathematics,  in 
physics,  in  chemistry,  in  biology,  in  astronomy  and 
in  applications  of  them,  time  and  space  and  matter 
have  been  already  conquered  to  such  an  extent  that 
our  globe,  once  so  seemingly  vast,  has  virtually 
shrunken  to  the  dimensions  of  an  ancient  province; 
and  manifold  peoples  of  divers  tongues  and  tradi- 
tions and  customs  and  institutions  are  now  con- 


A  NEW  CONCEPT  OF  LIFE  21 

strained  to  live  together  as  in  a  single  community. 
There  is  thus  demanded  a  new  ethical  wisdom,  a 
new  legal  wisdom,  a  new  economical  wisdom,  a  new 
political  wisdom,  a  new  wisdom  in  the  affairs  of  gov- 
ernment. For  the  new  visions  our  anguished  times 
cry  aloud  but  the  only  answers  are  reverberated 
echoes  of  the  wailing  cry  mingled  with  the  chattering 
voices  of  excited  public  men  who  know  not  what  to 
do.  Why?  What  is  the  explanation?  The  ques- 
tion is  double:  Why  the  disease?  And  why  no  rem- 
edy at  hand?  The  answer  is  the  same  for  both.  And 
the  answer  is  that  the  so-called  sciences  of  ethics  and 
jurisprudence  and  economics  and  politics  and  gov- 
ernment have  not  kept  pace  with  the  rapid  progress 
made  in  the  other  great  affairs  of  man;  they  have 
lagged  behind;  it  is  because  of  their  lagging  that  the 
world  has  come  to  be  in  so  great  distress;  and  it  is 
because  of  their  lagging  that  they  have  not  now 
the  needed  wisdom  to  effect  a  cure. 

Do  you  ask  why  it  is  that  the  "social"  sciences — 
the  so-called  sciences  of  ethics,  etc. — have  lagged 
behind?  The  answer  is  not  far  to  seek  nor  difficult 
to  understand.  They  have  lagged  behind,  partly 
because  they  have  been  hampered  by  the  traditions 
and  the  habits  of  a  bygone  world — they  have  looked 
backward  instead  of  forward;  they  have  lagged  be- 
hind, partly  because  they  have  depended  upon  the 
barren  methods  of  verbalistic  philosophy  —  they 


22  MANHOOD  or  HUMANITY 

have  been  metaphysical  instead  of  scientific;  they 
have  lagged  behind,  partly  because  they  have  been 
often  dominated  by  the  lusts  of  cunning  "politicians" 
instead  of  being  led  by  the  wisdom  of  enlightened 
statesmen;  they  have  lagged  behind,  partly  because 
they  have  been  predominantly  concerned  to  protect 
"vested  interests,"  upon  which  they  have  in  the  main 
depended  for  support;  the  fundamental  cause,  how- 
ever, of  their  lagging  behind  is  found  in  the  aston- 
ishing fact  that,  despite  their  being  by  their  very 
nature  most  immediately  concerned  with  the  affairs 
of  mankind,  they  have  not  discovered  what  Man 
really  is  but  have  from  time  immemorial  falsely  re- 
garded human  beings  either  as  animals  or  else  as 
combinations  of  animals  and  something  supernatural. 
With  these  two  monstrous  conceptions  of  the  essen- 
tial nature  of  man  I  shall  deal  at  a  later  stage  of  this 
writing. 

At  present  I  am  chiefly  concerned  to  drive  home 
the  fact  that  it  is  the  great  disparity  between  the 
rapid  progress  of  the  natural  and  technological 
sciences  on  the  one  hand  and  the  slow  progress  of 
the  metaphysical,  so-called  social  "sciences"  on  the 
other  hand,  that  sooner  or  later  so  disturbs  the 
equilibrium  of  human  affairs  as  to  result  periodically 
in  those  social  cataclysms  which  we  call  insurrec- 
tions, revolutions  and  wars.  The  reader  should  note 
carefully  that  such  cataclysmic  changes — such 
"jumps,"  as  we  may  call  them — such  violent  read- 


A  NEW  CONCEPT  OF  LITE  23 

justments  in  human  affairs  and  human  relationships 
— are  recorded  throughout  the  history  of  mankind. 
And  I  would  have  him  see  clearly  that,  because  the 
disparity  which  produces  them  increases  as  we  pass 
from  generation  to  generation — from  term  to  term 
of  our  progressions — the  "jumps"  in  question  occur 
not  only  with  increasing  violence  but  with  increasing 
frequency.  This  highly  significant  fact  may  be 
graphically  illustrated  in  the  following  figure: 

Geometric  evolution  of  the  natural  and  technological  sciences. 
— Peaceful  progress. 

248  16  32 


Arithmetical    evolution    of  the    so-called    social    "sciences," 
accelerated  by  violent  "jumps." — Non-peaceful  social  progress. 


A'      A 

\       i 

B    C           D         E            F 

l>i              i  .     i    -                i  i  .  i 

( 

—  i  1  — 
2      4 

6\/              8\     /               io\ 

Peaceful 

U  Peaceful     \    /    Peaceful 

V                V 

Progress 

Jump                 Jump 

Jump 

when 

Revo-                Revo- 

Revo- 

equal 

lution                lution 

lution 

or  War.             or  War. 

or  War. 

0'2,  20,  dby  \>c,  cd,  represent  the  geometrical  law 
of  progression  in  the  natural  and  technological 
sciences  (peaceful  evolution). 

A'?.,  2.A,  AB,  CD,  EF,  represent  the  lagging 
arithmetical  law  of  progression  in  the  so-called  social 
sciences  (peaceful  evolution). 

Both  of  these  during  the  same  periods  of  time. 


24  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

BC,  DE,  FG,  represent  revolutions  or  wars,  with 
the  aftermath  of  revolution  of  ideas — the  "jump" — 
violent  readjustment  of  ideas  to  facts — forced  by 
events. 

ab,  be,  cd,  and  AB,  CD,  EF,  take  the  same  amount 
of  time,  but  the  second  progression  being  much 
slower  than  the  first  one,  the  "jumps"  or  revolutions 
occur  at  shorter  intervals  as  time  goes  on  and  thus 
more  frequently  force  us  to  coordinate  our  ideas  to 
facts.  Periods  of  peace  or  seeming  peace  alternate 
more  and  more  frequently  with  periods  of  violence; 
the  mentioned  disparity  of  progress  in  peaceful  times 
is  the  hatching  seed  of  future  violence.* 

*To  digress  a  bit,  it  may  be  interesting  to  add,  that  popula- 
tion and  the  need  of  people  increase  in  a  geometrical  progres- 
sion; and  also  that  the  growth  of  individuals  is  limited  by  the 
fact,  that  they  have  to  absorb  their  food  through  surfaces 
which  as  growth  goes  on  increase  only  as  squares,  while  the 
bodies  to  be  fed,  being  volumes,  increase  in  size  as  cubes  increase, 
as  the  cubes  of  the  same  base  grow  faster  than  the  squares, 

22  =  4,     23=8,    32=9,    38  =  27>     and  so  on, 

it  is  obvious,  that  in  the  infancy  of  an  organism  only  a  part  of 
the  food  goes  to  maintain  life,  the  larger  part  goes  for  growth; 
when  the  organism  becomes  larger,  the  absorbing  surfaces, 
growing  proportionally  to  the  square,  the  food  is  spent  to  build 
the  mass  of  the  volume  of  the  body  and  is  spent  proportionally 
to  the  cube.  Suppose  our  organism  has  grown  to  a  size  twice 
as  large,  its  absorbing  capacity  has  become  four  times  larger, 
its  volume  eight  times  larger.  In  case  of  3  times,  the  difference 
will  be  9  and  27.  It  is  obvious  that  at  some  point,  all  the 
absorbed  food  will  be  used  to  maintain  life  and  none  will  be 
left  for  growth,  and  this  last  process  will  stop.  This  is  another 
example  which  explains  how  the  theory  of  dimensions  is  vitally 
important  in  life  and  shows  why  it  is  absolutely  essential  to 
take  account  of  dimensions  in  the  study  of  life  problems. 


A  NEW  CONCEPT  OF  LIFE  25 

As  a  matter  of  fact  these  few  mathematical  con- 
siderations can  hardly  be  called  mathematics  or 
mathematical  philosophy;  nevertheless,  without 
bringing  attention  to  these  very  simple  mathematical 
ideas  we  should  not  be  able  to  proceed  any  further 
than  in  the  past  Our  life  problems  have  always  been 
"solved"  by  verbalists  and  rhetorical  metaphysicians 
who  cleverly  played  with  vague  words  and  who 
always  ignored  the  supremely  important  matter  of 
dimensions  because  they  were  ignorant  of  it.  There 
was  no  possible  way  to  arrive  at  an  agreement  on 
the  significance  of  words,  or  even  the  understanding 
of  them.  Let  us  take,  for  instance,  such  words  as 
"good"  or  "bad"  or  "truth" ;  volumes  upon  volumes 
have  been  written  about  them;  no  one  has  reached 
any  result  universally  acceptable ;  the  effect  has  been 
to  multiply  warring  schools  of  philosophy — secta- 
rians and  partisans.  In  the  meantime  something 
corresponding  to  each  of  the  terms  "good,"  "bad," 
"truth"  exists  as  matter  of  fact;  but  what  that  some- 
thing is  still  awaits  scientific  determination.  If  only 
these  three  words  could  be  scientifically  defined,  phil- 
osophy, law,  ethics  and  psychology  would  cease  to 
be  "private  theories"  or  verbalism  and  they  would 
advance  to  the  rank  and  dignity  of  sciences. 

Here  I  may  quote  a  characteristic  of  life  as  ex- 
pressed by  one  of  the  "heroes"  of  my  esteemed 
friend  Harvey  O'Higgins,  in  his  book,  From  the 


26  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

Life,   Imaginary  Portraits   of  Some  Distinguished 
Americans  (Harper,  N.  Y.). 

"Warren  never  philosophized;  he  handled  facts  as  an 
artisan  handles  his  tools;  but  if  he  had  philosophized,  his 
theory  of  life  would  probably  have  been  something  like  this: 
'There  is  no  justice,  there  is  no  morality,  in  nature  or  in 
natural  laws;  justice  and  morality  are  laws  only  of  human 
society.  But  society,  natural  life,  and  all  civilization  are 
subject  in  their  larger  aspects  to  natural  laws — which  con- 
tradict morality  and  outrage  justice — and  the  statesman  has 
to  move  with  those  laws  and  direct  his  people  in  accordance 
with  them,  despite  the  lesser  by-laws  of  morality  and  jus- 
tice.' " 

If  such  are  the  creeds  of  "distinguished  people" 
anywhere,  what  better  can  we  expect  than  that  which 
we  see  in  the  history  of  humanity? 

But  the  fact  that  the  old  philosophy,  law,  ethics, 
psychology,  politics  and  sociology  could  not  solve  the 
practical  problems  of  humanity,  is  not  any  reason 
whatsoever  why  we  should  despair.  The  problems 
can  be  solved. 

To  follow  the  reasoning  of  this  book,  it  is  not 
necessary  to  be  a  highly  trained  specialist;  the  only 
qualifications  required  are  candor,  an  open  mind, 
freedom  from  blinding  prejudice,  thoughtfulness,  a 
real  desire  for  truth,  and  enough  common  sense  to 
understand  that  to  talk  of  adding  three  quarts  of 
milk  to  three-quarters  of  a  mile  is  to  talk  nonsense. 


CHAPTER  II 

CHILDHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

/TAHE  conclusion  of  the  World  War  is  the  closing 
of  the  period  of  the  childhood  of  humanity. 
This  childhood,  as  any  childhood,  can  be  character- 
ized as  devoid  of  any  real  understanding  of  values, 
as  is  that  of  a  child  who  uses  a  priceless  chronometer 
to  crack  nuts. 

This  childhood  has  been  unduly  long,  but  happily 
we  are  near  to  the  end  of  it,  for  humanity,  shaken 
by  this  war,  is  coming  to  its  senses  and  must  soon 
enter  its  manhood,  a  period  of  great  achievements 
and  rewards  in  the  new  and  real  sense  of  values 
dawning  upon  us. 

The  sacred  dead  will  not  have  died  for  naught; 
the  "red  wine  of  youth,"  the  wanton  waste  of  life, 
has  shown  us  the  price  of  life,  and  we  will  have  to 
keep  our  oath  to  make  the  future  woithy  of  their 
sweat  and  blood. 

Early  ideas  are  not  necessarily  true  ideas. 

There  are  different  kinds  of  interpretations  of 
history  and  different  schools  of  philosophy.  All  of 
them  have  contributed  something  to  human  progress, 
but  none  of  them  has  been  able  to  give  the  world  a 

27 


28  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

basic  philosophy  embracing  the  whole  progress  of 
science  and  establishing  the  life  of  man  upon  the 
abiding  foundation  of  Fact. 

Our  life  is  bound  to  develop  according  to  evident 
or  else  concealed  laws  of  nature.  The  evident  laws 
of  nature  were  the  inspiration  of  genuine  science  in 
its  cradle;  and  their  interpretations  or  misinterpre- 
tations have  from  the  earliest  times  formed  systems 
of  law,  of  ethics,  and  of  philosophy. 

Human  intellect,  be  it  that  of  an  individual  or 
that  of  the  race,  forms  conclusions  which  have  to  be 
often  revised  before  they  correspond  approximately 
to  facts.  What  we  call  progress  consists  in  coordi- 
nating ideas  with  realities.  The  World  War  has 
taught  something  to  everybody.  It  was  indeed  a 
great  reality;  it  accustomed  us  to  think  in  terms  of 
reality  and  not  in  those  of  phantom  speculation. 
Some  unmistakable  truths  were  revealed.  Facts  and 
force  were  the  things  that  counted.  Power  had  to 
be  produced  to  destroy  hostile  power;  it  was  found 
that  the  old  political  and  economic  systems  were  not 
adequate  to  the  task  put  upon  them.  The  world  had 
to  create  new  economic  conditions;  it  was  obliged 
to  supplement  the  old  systems  with  special  boards 
for  food,  coal,  railroads,  shipping,  labor,  etc.  The 
World  War  emergency  compelled  the  nations  to  or- 
ganize for  producing  greater  power  in  order  to  con- 
quer power  already  great. 


CHILDHOOD  OF  HUMANITY  29 

If  there  is  anything  which  this  war  has  proved,  it 
is  the  fact  that  the  most  important  asset  a  nation  or 
an  individual  can  have,  is  the  ability  "to  do  things." 

"In  Flanders  Fields  the  poppies  blow  .  .  . ,"  that 
is  too  true;  they  blow  and  they  are  strong  and  red. 
But  the  purpose  of  this  writing  is  not  the  celebra- 
tion of  poetry,  but  the  elucidation  and  right  use  of 
facts. 

Normally,  thousands  of  rabbits  and  guinea  pigs 
are  used  and  killed,  in  scientific  laboratories,  for 
experiments  which  yield  great  and  tangible  benefits 
to  humanity.  This  war  butchered  millions  of  people 
and  ruined  the  health  and  lives  of  tens  of  millions. 
Is  this  climax  of  the  pre-war  civilization  to  be  passed 
unnoticed,  except  for  the  poetry  and  the  manuring 
of  the  battle  fields,  that  the  "poppies  blow"  stronger 
and  better  fed?  Or  is  the  death  of  ten  men  on  the 
battle  field  to  be  of  as  much  worth  in  knowledge 
gained  as  is  the  life  of  one  rabbit  killed  for  experi- 
ment? Is  the  great  sacrifice  worth  analysing? 
There  can  be  only  one  answer — yes.  But,  if  truth 
be  desired,  the  analysis  must  be  scientific. 

In  science,  "opinions"  are  tolerated  when  and 
only  when  facts  are  lacking.  In  this  case,  We  have 
all  the  facts  necessary.  We  have  only  to  collect  them 
and  analyse  them,  rejecting  mere  "opinions"  as  cheap 
and  unworthy.  Such  as  understand  this  lesson  will 
know  how  to  act  for  the  benefit  of  all. 


30  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

At  present  the  future  of  mankind  is  dark.  "Stop, 
look,  and  listen" — the  prudent  caution  at  railroad 
crossings — must  be  amended  to  read  "stop,  look, 
listen,  and  THINK";  not  for  the  saving  of  a  few  lives 
in  railroad  accidents,  but  for  the  preservation  of  the 
life  of  humanity.  Living  organisms,  of  the  lower 
and  simpler  types,  in  which  the  differentiation  and 
the  integration  of  the  vital  organs  have  not  been 
carried  far,  can  move  about  for  a  considerable  time 
after  being  deprived  of  the  appliances  by  which  the 
life  force  is  accumulated  and  transferred,  but  higher 
organisms  are  instantly  killed  by  the  removal  of  such 
appliances,  or  even  by  the  injury  of  minor  parts  of 
them;  even  more  easily  destroyed  are  the  more  ad- 
vanced and  complicated  social  organizations. 

The  first  question  is:  what  are  to  be  the  scientific 
methods  that  will  eliminate  diverse  opinions  and 
creeds  from  an  analysis  of  facts  and  ensure  correct 
deductions  based  upon  them?  A  short  survey  of 
facts  concerning  civilization  will  help  to  point  the 
way. 

Humanity,  in  its  cradle,  did  not  have  science;  it 
had  only  the  faculties  of  observation  and  speculation. 
In  the  early  days  there  was  much  speculative  think- 
ing, but  it  was  without  any  sufficient  basis  of  facts. 
Theology  and  philosophy  flourished;  their  specula- 
tions were  often  very  clever,  but  all  their  primitive 
notions  about  facts — such  as  the  structure  of  the 


CHILDHOOD  OF  HITMANITY  31 

heavens,  the  form  of  the  earth,  mechanical  principles, 
meteorological  or  physiological  phenomena — were 
almost  all  of  them  wrong. 

What  is  history?  What  is  its  significance  for 
humanity?  Dr.  J.  H.  Robinson  gives  us  a  precise 
answer:  "Man's  abject  dependence  on  the  past  gives 
rise  to  the  continuity  of  history.  Our  convictions, 
opinions,  prejudices,  intellectual  tastes;  our  knowl- 
edge, our  methods  of  learning  and  of  applying  for 
information  we  owe,  with  slight  exceptions,  to  the 
past — often  to  the  remote  past.  History  is  an  ex- 
pansion of  memory,  and  like  memory  it  alone  can 
explain  the  present  and  in  this  lies  its  most  unmis- 
takable value."  * 

The  savage  regards  every  striking  phenomenon  or 
group  of  phenomena  as  caused  by  some  personal 
agent,  and  from  remotest  antiquity  the  mode  of  think- 
ing has  changed  only  as  fast  as  the  relations  among 
phenomena  have  been  established. f 

*  An  Outline  of  the  History  of  the  Western  European  Mind,  by 
James  Harvey  Robinson.  The  New  School  for  Social  Research, 
New  York,  1919.  This  little  volume  gives  condensed  state- 
ments, as  in  a  nutshell,  of  the  historical  developments  of  the 
human  mind  and  contains  a  long  list  of  the  most  substantial 
modern  books  on  historical  questions.  All  the  further  historical 
quotations  will  be  taken  from  this  exceptionally  valuable  little 
book,  and  for  convenience  they  will  simply  be  marked  by  his 
initials— J.  H.  R. 

f  (J.  H.  R.)  "Late  appearance  of  a  definite  theory  of  progress. 
Excessive  conservatism  of  primitive  peoples.  The  Greeks 
speculated  on  the  origin  of  things,  but  they  did  not  have  a  con- 
ception of  the  possibility  of  indefinite  progress  .  .  .  Progress 


32  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

Human  nature  was  always  asking  "why"?  and  not 
being  able  to  answer  why,  they  found  their  answer 

of  man  from  the  earliest  time  till  the  opening  of  the  1 7th  century 
almost  altogether  unconscious.  .  .  .  Fundamental  weakness  of 
Hellenic  learning.  It  was  an  imposing  collection  of  speculation, 
opinions,  and  guesses,  which,  however  brilliant  and  ingenious 
they  might  be,  were  based  on  a  very  slight  body  of  exact  knowl- 
edge, and  failed  to  recognize  the  fundamental  necessity  of 
painful  scientific  research,  aided  by  apparatus.  There  was  no 
steady  accumulation  of  knowledge  to  offset  the  growing  emo- 
tional distrust  of  reason.  .  .  .  Unfulfilled  promise  of  Hellenistic 
science.  Influence  of  slavery  in  checking  the  development  of 
science.  .  .  .  The  deficiencies  of  Medieval  culture.  All  the 
weaknesses  of  the  Hellenic  reasoning,  combined  with  those  of 
the  Christian  Fathers,  underlay  what  appeared  to  be  a  most 
logically  elaborated  and  definitive  system  of  thought.  Defects 
of  the  university  education.  .  .  .  Little  history  of  Natural 
science,  in  our  sense  of  the  word,  taught  in  the  universities.  .  .  . 
Copernicus,  'De  Revolutionibus  Orbium  Coelestium.'  Libri 
VI,  1543.  .  .  .  Copernicus'  own  introduction  acknowledges 
his  debt  to  ancient  philosophers.  Still  believed  in  fixed  Starry 
Sphere.  His  discovery  had  little  immediate  effect  on  prevail- 
ing notions.  Giordano  Bruno  (1548-1600)  made  it  his  chief 
business  to  think  out  and  set  forth  in  Latin  and  Italian  the 
implications  of  the  discovery  of  Copernicus.  .  .  .  Bruno  burned 
by  the  Inquisition  at  Rome.  .  .  .  Keppler  (1571-1630)  and 
his  discovery  of  the  elliptical  orbits  of  the  planets.  Galileo 
(1564-1642).  His  telescope  speedily  improved  so  as  to  magnify 
32  diameters.  His  attitude  toward  the  Copernican  theory, 
which  was  condemned  by  Roman  Inquisition  1616.  .  .  . 
Galileo's  chief  discoveries  were  in  physics  and  mechanics. 
Isaac  Newton  (1642-1727)  proved  that  the  laws  of  falling 
bodies  apply  to  the  heavens.  This  made  a  deep  impression 
and  finally  the  newer  conceptions  of  the  universe  began  to  be 
popularized.  .  .  .  Lord  Bacon  (1561-1626),  the  'Buccinator* 
of  experimental  and  applied  modern  science.  .  .  .  His  lively 
appreciation  of  the  existing  obstacles  to  scientific  advance;  the 
idols  of  the  tribe,  cave,  market-place,  and  theatre.  .  .  .  Neces- 
sity of  escaping  from  the  scholastic  methods  of  'tumbling  up 
and  down  in  our  reasons  and  conceits,'  and  studying  the  world 
about  us.  Undreamed  of  achievements  possible  if  only  the 
right  method  of  research  be  followed  .  .  .  the  distrust  of 


CHILDHOOD  OF  HUMANITY  33 

through  another  factor  "who."  The  unknown  was 
called,  Gods  or  God.  But  with  the  progress  of 
science  the  "why"  became  more  and  more  evident, 
and  the  question  came  to  be  "how."  From  the  early 
days  of  humanity,  dogmatic  theology,  law,  ethics, 
and  science  in  its  infancy,  were  the  monopolies  of  one 
class  and  the  source  of  their  power.* 

ancient  authority.  .  .  .  Descartes  (1596-1650),  ...  he  pro- 
posed to  reach  the  truth  through  analysis  and  clear  ideas,  on 
the  assumption  that  God  will  not  deceive.  .  .  .  His  fundamental 
interest  in  mathematics.  .  .  .  His  claim  to  originality  and  his 
rejection  of  all  authority.  .  .  .  Obstacles  to  scientific  advance; 
the  universities  still  dominated  by  Aristotle;  the  theological 
faculties;  the  censorship  of  the  press  exercised  by  both  church 
and  state;  .  .  ." 

*  (J.  H.  R.)  "Phases  of  religious  complex.  'Religious/  a 
vague  and  comprehensive  term  applied  to:  (i)  certain  classes 
of  emotions  (awe,  dependence,  self-distrust,  aspirations,  etc.); 
(2)  Conduct,  which  may  take  the  form  of  distinctive  religious 
acts  (ceremonies,  sacrifices,  prayers,  'good  works')  or  the 
observance  of  what  in  primitive  conditions  are  recognized  as 
'taboos';  (3)  Priestly,  or  ecclesiastical  organizations;  (4) 
Beliefs  about  supernatural  beings  and  man's  relations  to  them: 
the  latter  may  take  the  form  of  revelation  and  be  reduced  to 
creeds  and  become  the  subject  of  elaborate  theological  specula- 
tions. 

"Association  of  religion  with  the  supernatural;  religion  has 
always  had  for  its  primary  object  the  attainment  of  a  satisfac- 
tory adjustment  to,  or  a  successful  control  over,  the  super- 
natural. .  .  .  The  cultural  mind  viewed  as  the  product  of  a 
long  and  hazardous  process  of  accumulation.  .  .  .  Spontaneous 
generation  of  superstitions.  Prevalence  of  symbolism,  mana, 
animism,  magic,  fetishism,  totemism;  the  taboo  (cf.  our  modern 
idea  of  'principle'),  the  sacred,  clean  and  unclean;  'dream 
logic' — spontaneous  rationalizing  or  'jumping  at  conclusions'; 
.  .  .  The  1 6th  book  of  the  Theodosian  Code  contains  edicts 
relating  to  the  Church  issued  by  the  Roman  Emperors  during 
the  4th  and  5th  centuries.  They  make  it  a  crime  to  disagree 
with  the  Church;  they  provide  harsh  penalties  for  heretical 


34  MANHOOD  or  HUMANITY 

The  first  to  break  this  power  were  the  exact 
sciences.  They  progressed  too  rapidly  to  be  bound 
and  limited  by  obscure  old  writings  and  prejudices; 
life  and  realities  were  their  domain.  Science  brushed 
aside  all  sophistry  and  became  a  reality.  Ethics  is 
too  fundamentally  important  a  factor  in  civilization 
to  depend  upon  a  theological  or  a  legal  excuse; 

teaching  and  writing,  and  grant  privileges  to  the  orthodox 
clergy  (exemptions  from  regular  taxes  and  benefit  of  the  clergy). 
.  .  .  Christianity  becomes  a  monopoly  defended  by  the  state. 
.  .  .  Psychological  power  and  attraction  in  the  elaborate 
symbolism  and  ritual  of  the  church.  .  .  .  Allegory  put  an  end 
to  all  literary  criticism.  .  .  .  Flourishing  of  the  miraculous; 
any  unusual  or  startling  occurrence  attributed  to  the  interven- 
tion of  either  God  or  the  Devil.  .  .  .  Older  conceptions  of 
disease  as  caused  by  the  Devil.  .  .  .  Our  legal  expression 
'act  of  God'  confined  to  unforseeable  natural  disasters.  How 
with  a  growing  appreciation  for  natural  law  and  a  chastened 
taste  in  wonders,  miracles  have  tended  to  become  a  source  of 
intellectual  distress  and  bewilderment.  .  .  .  Protestants  shared 
with  Roman  Catholics  the  horror  of  'rationalists'  and  'free- 
thinkers.' The  leaders  of  both  parties  agreed  in  hampering 
and  denouncing  scientific  discoveries.  .  .  .  Witchcraft  in  its 
modern  form  emerges  clearly  in  the  I5th  century.  .  .  .  Great 
prevalence  of  witchcraft  during  the  i6th  and  iyth  centuries  in 
Protestant  and  Catholic  countries,  alike.  .  .  .  Trial  of  those 
suspected  of  sorcery.  Tortures  to  force  confession.  The 
witches'  mark.  Penalties,  burning  alive,  strangling,  hanging. 
Tens  of  thousands  of  innocent  persons  perished.  .  .  .  Those 
who  tried  to  discredit  witchcraft  denounced  as  'Sadducees* 
and  atheists.  .  .  .  The  psychology  of  intolerance.  Fear,  vested 
interests,  the  comfortable  nature  of  the  traditional  and  the 
habitual.  The  painful  appropriation  of  new  ideas.  .  .  .  The 
intolerance  of  the  Catholic  Church:  a  natural  result  of  its  state- 
like  organization  and  claims.  ...  Its  doctrine  of  exclusive 
salvation  and  its  conception  of  heresy  both  sanctioned  by  the 
state.  Doubt  and  error  regarded  as  sinful.  .  .  .  Beginnings 
of  censorship  of  the  press  after  the  invention  of  printing,  licens- 
ing of  ecclesiastical  and  civil  authorities.  .  .  .  Protestants  of 
i6th  century  accept  the  theory  of  intolerance." 


35 

ethics  must  conform  to  the  natural  laws  of  human 
nature. 

Laws,  legal  ideas,  date  from  the  beginning  of 
civilization.  Legal  speculation  was  wonderfully  de- 
veloped in  parallel  lines  with  theology  and  phil- 
osophy before  the  natural  and  exact  sciences  came 
into  existence.  Law  was  always  made  by  the  few 
and  in  general  for  the  purpose  of  preserving  the 
"existing  order,"  or  for  the  reestablishment  of  the 
old  order  and  the  punishment  of  the  offenders 
against  it. 

Dogmatic  theology  is,  by  its  very  nature,  un- 
changeable. The  same  can  be  said  in  regard  to  the 
spirit  of  the  law.  Law  was  and  is  to  protect  the 
past  and  present  status  of  society  and,  by  its  very 
essence,  must  be  very  conservative,  if  not  reactionary. 
Theology  and  law  are  both  of  them  static  by  their 
nature.* 

*(J.  H.  R.)  "The  Sociopsychological  foundations  of  conserv- 
atism: Primitive  natural  reverence  for  the  familiar  and  habitual 
greatly  reenforced  by  religion  and  law.  Natural  conservatism 
of  all  professions.  Those  who  suffer  most  from  existing  institu- 
tions commonly,  helplessly  accept  the  situation  as  inevitable. 
Position  of  the  conservative;  he  urges  the  impossibility  of  alter- 
ing 'human  nature'  and  warns  against  the  disasters  of  revolu- 
tion. Conservatism  in  the  light  of  history:  History  would  seem 
to  discredit  conservatism  completely  as  a  working  principle  in 
view  of  the  past  achievements  of  mankind  in  the  recent  past 
and  the  possibilities  which  opened  before  us.  ...  Futility  of 
the  appeal  of  the  conservative  to  human  nature  as  an  obstacle 
to  progress.  .  .  .  Culture  can  not  be  transmitted  hereditarily 
but  can  be  accumulated  through  education  and  modified  indefi- 
nitely." 


36  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

Philosophy,  law  and  ethics,  to  be  effective  in  a 
dynamic  world  must  be  dynamic;  they  must  be  made 
vital  enough  to  keep  pace  with  the  progress  of  life 
and  science.  In  recent  civilization  ethics,  because 
controlled  by  theology  and  law,  which  are  static, 
could  not  duly  influence  the  dynamic,  revolutionary 
progress  of  technic  and  the  steadily  changing  condi- 
tions of  life ;  and  so  we  witness  a  tremendous  down- 
fall of  morals  in  politics  and  business.  Life  pro- 
gresses faster  than  our  ideas,  and  so  medieval  ideas, 
methods  and  judgments  are  constantly  applied  to 
the  conditions  and  problems  of  modern  life.  This 
discrepancy  between  facts  and  ideas  is  greatly  respon- 
sible for  the  dividing  of  modern  society  into  differ- 
ent warring  classes,  which  do  not  understand  each 
other.  Medieval  legalism  and  medieval  morals — 
the  basis  of  the  old  social  structure — being  by  their 
nature  conservative,  reactionary,  opposed  to  change, 
and  thus  becoming  more  and  more  unable  to  support 
the  mighty  social  burden  of  the  modern  world,  must 
be  adjudged  responsible  in  a  large  measure  for  the 
circumstances  which  made  the  World  War  inevitable. 

Under  the  flash  of  explosives  some  of  the  work- 
ings of  those  antiquated  ideas  were  exposed  or 
crushed.  The  World  War  has  profoundly  changed 
economic  conditions  and  made  it  necessary  to  erect 
new  standards  of  values.  We  are  forced  to  realize 
that  evolution  by  transformation  is  a  cosmic  process 


CHILDHOOD  OF  HUMANITY  37 

and  that  reaction,  though  it  may  retard  it,  can  not 
entirely  stop  it.* 

The  idea  that  organic  species  are  results  of  special 
creation  has  no  scientific  standard  whatever.  There 
is  not  one  fact  tending  to  prove  special  or  separate 
creation;  the  evidence,  which  is  overwhelming,  is  all 
of  it  on  the  other  side.  The  hypothesis  of  special 
creation  is  a  mere  fossil  of  the  past.  Evolution  is 
the  only  theory  which  is  in  harmony  with  facts  and 
with  all  branches  of  science;  life  is  dynamic,  not 
static. 

Philosophy,  as  defined  by  Fichte,  is  the  "science 
of  sciences."  Its  aim  was  to  solve  the  problems  of 
the  world.  In  the  past,  when  all  exact  sciences  were 
in  their  infancy,  philosophy  had  to  be  purely  specu- 
lative, with  little  or  no  regard  to  realities.  But  if 

*  (J.  H.  R.)  "Formulation  and  establishment  of  the  evolu- 
tionary hypothesis.  Discovery  of  the  great  age  of  the  earth; 
.  .  .  gradual  development  of  the  evolutionary  theory.  .  .  . 
Darwin's  'Origin  of  the  Species/  1859.  Herbert  Spencer 
(1820-1903).  .  .  .  Haeckel  (1834-1919)  and  others  clarify, 
defend  and  popularize  the  new  doctrine.  Subsequent  develop- 
ment of  the  evolutionary  doctrine  by  Mendel,  Weisman,  DeVries 
and  others.  Weakening  of  the  special  creation  theory  by  other 
evidence  such  as  archeology  and  biblical  criticism.  The  signifi- 
cance of  the  doctrine  for  intellectual  history.  Character  of  the 
opposition  to  the  evolutionary  theory.  Popular  confusion  of 
'Darwinism'  with  'evolution/  Revolutionary  effects  of  the 
new  point  of  view.  Does  away  with  conception  of  fixed  species 
(Platonic  ideas)  that  had  previously  dominated  speculation. 
The  genetic  method  adopted  in  all  the  organic  sciences,  including 
the  newer  social  sciences.  Problem  of  adjusting  history  to  the 
discoveries  of  the  past  50  years.  Bearing  of  evolution  on  the 
theory  of  progress.  Organic  evolution  and  social  evolution." 


38  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

we  regard  philosophy  as  a  Mother  science,  divided 
into  many  branches,  we  find  that  those  branches  have 
grown  so  large  and  various,  that  the  Mother  science 
looks  like  a  hen  with  her  little  ducklings  paddling 
in  a  pond,  far  beyond  her  reach;  she  is  unable  to 
follow  her  growing  hatchlings.  In  the  meantime, 
the  progress  of  life  and  science  goes  on,  irrespective 
of  the  cackling  of  metaphysics.  Philosophy  does  not 
fulfill  her  initial  aim  to  bring  the  results  of  experi- 
mental and  exact  sciences  together  and  to  solve  world 
problems.  Through  endless,  scientific  specialization 
scientific  branches  multiply,  and  for  want  of  coordi- 
nation the  great  world-problems  suffer.  This  failure 
of  philosophy  to  fulfill  her  boasted  mission  of  scien- 
tific coordination  is  responsible  for  the  chaos  in  the 
world  of  general  thought.  The  world  has  no  col- 
lective or  organized  higher  ideals  and  aims,  nor 
even  fixed  general  purposes.  Life  is  an  accidental 
game  of  private  or  collective  ambitions  and  greeds.* 

*(J.  H.  R.)  "The  Deists  and  philosophers  destroy  the  older 
theological  anthropology  and  reassert  the  dignity  of  man;  the 
growth  of  criticism  and  liberalism  has  made  the  analysis  of 
social  institutions  somewhat  less  dangerous;  the  general  growth 
of  knowledge  has  reacted  in  a  stimulating  way  upon  the  sciences 
of  society;  the  great  increase  in  the  number,  complexity  and 
intensity  of  social  problems  has  proved  a  strong  incentive  to 
social  science;  The  Darwinian  hypothesis  has  rendered  pre- 
posterous any  conception  of  a  wholly  static  social  system.  How- 
ever, the  modern  social  sciences  in  our  capitalistic  order  meet 
much  the  same  resistance  from  the  'vested  interests'  that 
theological  radicalism  encountered  in  the  Middle  Ages,  and 
social  science  has  in  no  way  approached  the  objectivity  and 


CHILDHOOD  OF  HUMANITY  39 

Systematic  study  of  chemical  and  physical  phe- 
nomena has  been  carried  on  for  many  generations 
and  these  two  sciences  now  include :  ( i )  knowledge 
of  an  enormous  number  of  facts;  (2)  a  large  body 
of  natural  laws;  (3)  many  fertile  working  hypoth- 
eses respecting  the  causes  and  regularities  of  natural 
phenomena;  and  finally  (4)  many  helpful  theories 
held  subject  to  correction  by  further  testing  of  the 
hypotheses  giving  rise  to  them.  When  a  subject  is 
spoken  of  as  a  science,  it  is  understood  to  include 
all  of  the  above  mentioned  parts.  Facts  alone  do 
not  constitute  a  science  any  more  than  a  pile  of 
stones  constitutes  a  house,  not  even  do  facts  and  laws 
alone ;  there  must  be  facts,  hypotheses,  theories  and 
laws  before  the  subject  is  entitled  to  the  rank  of  a 
science. 

The  primal  function  of  a  science  is  to  enable  us 
to  anticipate  the  future  in  the  field  to  which  it  relates. 

progressiveness  of  present  day  natural  science.  .  .  .  Grave 
effects  of  vested  rights  in  hampering  experiments  and  readjust- 
ments. .  .  .  Obstacles  to  readjustment  presented  by  consecrated 
traditions.  .  .  .  Influence  of  modern  commercialism  in  the 
inordinate  development  of  organization  and  regimentation  in 
our  present  educational  system.  Psychological  disadvantages 
of  our  conventional  examination  system.  As  yet  our  education 
has  not  been  brought  into  close  relation  with  prevailing  condi- 
tions of  our  ever  increasing  knowledge.  .  .  .  Excellent  aims 
and  small  achievements  of  sociology  in  practical  results. 
(Because  of  absolute  lack  of  any  scientific  base.  Author.)  Gen- 
eral nature  of  the  problem  of  social  reform:  psychological 
problems  involved  in  social  reform  movements:  violent  resist- 
ance of  the  group  to  that  criticism  of  the  existing  institutions, 
which  must  precede  any  effective  social  reform.  ..." 


40  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

Judged  by  this  standard,  neither  philosophy  nor  its 
kindred — the  so-called  social  sciences — have  in  the 
past  been  very  effective.  There  was,  for  example, 
no  official  warning  of  the  coming  of  the  World  War 
— the  greatest  of  catastrophies.  The  future  was  not 
anticipated  because  political  philosophers  did  not 
possess  the  necessary  basis  of  knowledge.  To  be 
just  we  must  admit  that  philosophy  has  been  but  little 
aided  financially  because  it  is  commonly  regarded  as 
unnecessary.  The  technical  branches  of  science  have 
been  strongly  backed  and  generally  supported  by 
those  to  whom  they  have  brought  direct  profit;  and 
so  they  have  had  better  opportunities  for  develop- 
ment. 

Ethics  in  the  stifling  grip  of  myth  and  legalism 
is  not  convincing  enough  to  exercise  controlling  influ- 
ence. Such  is  the  situation  in  which  we  find  our- 
selves. Being  still  in  our  childhood  and  thinking  like 
savages,  we  looked  upon  the  World  War  as  a  per- 
sonal creation  of  a  "war-lord,"  because  those  inter- 
ested in  it  told  us  so.  We  neglected  to  use  our  com- 
mon sense  and  look  deeper  into  its  origins;  to  per- 
form for  ourselves  the  duty  which  political  phi- 
losophy did  not  perform  for  us — the  duty  of  think- 
ing in  terms  of  facts  and  not  in  terms  of  meta- 
physical speculations.  Knowledge  of  facts  would 
have  told  us  that  the  war  lords  were  only  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  ruling  classes.  A  system  of  social 


CHILDHOOD  OF  HUMAKITY  41 

and  economic  order  built  exclusively  on  selfishness, 
greed,  "survival  of  the  fittest,"  and  ruthless  compe- 
tition, must  cease  to  exist,  or  exist  by  means  of  war. 
The  representatives  of  this  system  determined  to  con- 
tinue to  exist,  and  so  war  was  the  consequence.  The 
ruling  classes  carried  the  whole  system  under  which 
they  lived  to  its  logical  conclusion  and  natural  issue, 
which  is  "grab  what  you  can."  This  motto  is  not 
peculiar  to  any  one  country;  it  is  the  motto  of  our 
whole  civilization  and  is  the  inevitable  outcome  of 
our  stupid  philosophy  regarding  the  characteristic 
nature  of  man  and  the  proper  potentialities  of  human 
life.  Where  are  we  to  find  the  true  doctrines? 
Where  the  true  philosophy?  If  we  go  back  over  the 
history  of  civilization,  we  find  that  in  all  "sciences," 
except  the  exact  ones,  private  opinions  and  theories 
have  shaped  our  beliefs,  colored  our  mental  proc- 
esses and  controlled  our  destinies;  we  see,  for  ex- 
ample, pessimism  opposed  to  optimism,  materialism 
to  spiritualism,  realism  to  idealism,  capitalism  to 
socialism,  and  so  on  endlessly.  Each  of  the  dispu- 
tatious systems  has  a  large  number  of  followers  and 
each  faction  looks  upon  the  others  as  deprived  of 
truth,  common  sense  and  knowledge.  All  of  them 
play  with  the  words  "natural  law"  which  they  igno- 
rantly  presume  to  have  as  the  basis  and  content  of 
their  own  particular  doctrine. 

It  is  the  same  in  the  realm  of  religions ;  there  are 


42  MANHOOD  or  HUMANITY 

approximately  291  million  Confucianists,  or  Taoists/ 
261  million  Roman  Catholics,  211  million  Moham- 
medans, 209  million  Hindus,  177  million  Protes- 
tants, 157  million  Animists,  137  million  Buddhists, 
115  million  Orthodox  Christians — to  speak  only  of 
the  most  important  religions.  Each  group,  and  they 
are  rather  large  groups,  believes  its  theory  or  its 
faith  to  be  infallible  and  all  the  others  to  be  false. 
Bacon  seems  a  bit  remote,  but  the  idols  and 
medieval  fetishes  which  he  so  masterfully  describes 
are  equally  venerated  to-day. 

(Novum  Organum,  by  Francis  Bacon.) 

34.  "Four  species  of  idols  beset  the  human  mind,  to  which 
(for  distinction's  sake)  we  have  assigned  names,  calling  the 
first  Idols  of  the  Tribe,  the  second  Idols  of  the  Den,  the 
third  Idols  of  the  Market,  the  fourth  Idols  of  the  Theatre. 

40.  "The  information  of  notions  and  axioms  on  the  foun- 
dation of  true  induction  is  the  only  fitting  remedy  by  which 
we  can  ward  off  and  expel  these  idols.     It  is,  however,  of 
great  service  to  point  them  out;  for  the  doctrine  of  idols 
bears  the  same  relation  to  the  interpretation  of  nature  as 
that  of  the  confutation  of  sophisms  does  to  common  logic. 

41.  "The  idols  of  the  tribe  are  inherent  in  human  nature 
and  the  very  tribe  or  race  of  man;  for  man's  sense  is  falsely 
Asserted  to  be  the  standard  of  things;  on  the  contrary,  all 
the  perceptions  both  of  the  senses  and  the  mind  bear  reference 
to  man  and  not  to  the  Universe,  and  the  human  mind  re- 
sembles these  uneven  mirrors  which  impart  their  own  prop- 
erties to  different  objects,  from  which  rays  are  emitted  and 
distort  and  disfigure  them. 

42.  "The  idols  of  the  den  are  those  of  each  individual; 
for  everybody  (in  addition  to  the  errors  common  to  the  race 


CHILDHOOD  OF  HUMANITY  43 

of  man)  has  his  own  individual  den  or  cavern,  which  inter- 
cepts and  corrupts  the  light  of  nature,  either  from  his  own 
peculiar  and  singular  disposition,  or  from  his  education  and 
intercourse  with  others,  or  from  his  reading,  and  the 
authority  acquired  by  those  whom  he  reverences  and  admires, 
or  from  the  different  impressions  produced  on  the  mind,  as 
it  happens  to  be  preoccupied  and  predisposed,  or  equable  and 
tranquil,  and  the  like;  so  that  the  spirit  of  man  (according 
to  its  several  dispositions),  is  variable,  confused,  and,  as  it 
were,  actuated  by  chance;  and  Heraclitus  said  well  that  men 
search  for  knowledge  in  lesser  worlds,  and  not  in  the  greater 
or  common  world. 

43.  "There  are  also  idols  formed  by  the  reciprocal  inter- 
course and  society  of  man  with  man,  which  we  call  idols 
of  the  market,  from  the  commerce  and  association  of  men 
with  each  other;  for  men  converse  by  means  of  language, 
but  words  are  formed  at  the  will  of  the  generality,  and  there 
arises  from  a  bad  and  unapt  formation  of  words  a  wonderful 
obstruction  to  the  mind.     Nor  can  the  definitions  and  ex- 
planations with  which  learned  men  are  wont  to  guard  and 
protect    themselves    in    some    instances    afford    a    complete 
remedy — words    still    manifestly    force    the    understanding, 
throw  everything  into  confusion,  and  lead  mankind  into  vain 
and  innumerable  controversies  and  fallacies. 

44.  "Lastly,  there  are  idols  which  have  crept  into  men's 
minds  from  the  various  dogmas  of  peculiar  systems  of  phi- 
losophy, and  also  from  the  perverted  rules  of  demonstration, 
and  these  we  denominate  idols  of  the  theatre:  for  we  regard 
all  the  systems  of  philosophy  hitherto  received  or  imagined, 
as   so   many    plays    brought    out    and    performed,    creating 
fictitious  and  theatrical  worlds.    Nor  do  we  speak  only  of  the 
present  systems,  or  of  the  philosophy  and  sects  of  the  ancients, 
since  numerous  other  plays  of  a  similar  nature  can  be  still 
composed  and  made  to  agree  with  each  other,   the  causes 
of  the  most  opposite  errors  being  generally  the  same.     Nor, 


44  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

again,  do  we  allude  merely  to  general  systems,  but  also  to 
many  elements  and  axioms  of  sciences  which  have  become 
inveterate  by  tradition,  implicit  credence,  and  neglect."  * 

Metaphysical  speculation  and  its  swarming  prog- 
eny of  blind  and  selfish  political  philosophies,  private 
opinions,  private  "truths,"  and  private  doctrines, 
sectarian  opinions,  sectarian  "truths"  and  sectarian 
doctrines,  querulous,  confused  and  blind — such  is 
characteristic  of  the  childhood  of  humanity.  The 
period  of  humanity's  manhood  will,  I  doubt  not,  be 
a  scientific  period — a  period  that  will  witness  the 
gradual  extension  of  scientific  method  to  all  the  in- 

*  (J.  H.  R.)  "  During  the  past  two  centuries  the  application 
of  the  scientific  discoveries  to  daily  life  has  revolutionized 
our  methods  of  supplying  our  economic  needs,  our  social  and 
intellectual  life,  and  the  whole  range  of  the  relations  of  mankind. 
The  impulse  of  invention,  iron,  coal,  and  steam  essential  to  the 
development  of  machinery  on  a  large  scale;  machinery  has  in 
turn  begotten  the  modern  factory  with  its  vast  organized  labor, 
the  modern  city  and  finally,  our  well  nigh  perfect  means  of 
rapid  human  inter-communication.  The  tremendous  increase 
in  the  production  of  wealth  and  the  growing  interdependence  of 
nations  has  opened  up  a  vast  range  of  speculation  in  regard  to 
the  betterment  of  mankind  to  the  abolition  or  reduction  of  pov- 
erty, ignorance,  disease,  and  war.  .  .  .  Man  advances  from  a 
tool-using  to  a  machine-controlling  animal.  The  rise  of  the 
factory  system;  the  concentration  and  localization  of  industry; 
increased  division  of  labor  and  specialization  of  industrial  proc- 
esses. The  great  increase  in  the  volume  of  capital  and  in  the 
extent  of  investments;  the  separation  of  capital  and  labor  and 
the  growth  of  impersonal  economic  relationship.  Problems  of 
capital  and  labor;  unemployment  and  the  labor  of  women  and 
children;  labor  organizations.  Increased  productivity  and  the 
expansion  of  commerce.  Industrial  processes  become  dynamic 
and  everchanging — a  complete  reversal  of  the  old  stability,  repeti- 
tion and  isolation." 


CHILDHOOD  or  HUMANITY  45 

terests  of  mankind — a  period  in  which  man  will  dis- 
cover the  essential  nature  of  man  and  establish,  at 
length,  the  science  and  art  of  directing  human 
energies  and  human  capacities  to  the  advancement 
of  human  weal  in  accordance  with  the  laws  of 
human  nature. 


CHAPTER  III 

CLASSES  OF  LIFE 

problems  to  be  dealt  with  in  this  chapter 
are  not  easy,  but  they  are  exceedingly  impor- 
tant. To  classify  phenomena  correctly,  they  must 
be  correctly  analysed  and  clearly  defined.  For  the 
sake  of  clearness  I  will  use  the  simplest  illustrations 
and,  avoiding  as  much  as  possible  the  difficulties  of 
technical  terms,  will  use  language  easily  to  be  under- 
stood by  every  one.  In  some  cases  the  words  will 
indeed  have  a  technical  meaning  and  it  will  be  neces- 
sary to  exercise  great  care  against  the  danger  of 
giving  false  impressions ;  for  clear  ideas  are  essential 
to  sound  thinking.  As  a  matter  of  fact  our  common 
daily  speech  is  ill  adapted  for  the  precise  expression 
of  thought;  even  so-called  "scientific"  language  is 
often  too  vague  for  the  purpose  and  requires  further 
refining.  Some  may  say  that  it  is  useless  and  un- 
necessary to  lay  so  much  stress  on  correct  thinking 
and  precise  expression;  that  it  has  no  practical  value; 
for  they  say  that  "business"  language  is  good  enough 
to  "talk  business,"  or  to  put  "something  over" — the 
other  fellow.  But  a  little  explanation  will  show  that 
precision  is  often  of  the  greatest  importance. 

46 


CLASSES  OF  LIFE  47 

Humanity  is  a  peculiar  class  of  life  which,  in  some 
degree,  determines  its  own  destinies;  therefore  in 
practical  life  words  and  ideas  become  facts — facts, 
moreover,  which  bring  about  important  practical 
consequences.  For  instance,  many  millions  of  human 
beings  have  defined  a  stroke  of  lightning  as  being 
the  "punishment  of  God"  of  evil  men;  other  millions 
have  defined  it  as  a  "natural,  casual,  periodical  phe- 
nomenon"; yet  other  millions  have  defined  it  as  an 
"electric  spark."  What  has  been  the  result  of 
these  "non-important"  definitions  in  practical  life? 
In  the  case  of  the  first  definition,  when  lightning 
struck  a  house,  the  population  naturally  made  no 
attempt  to  save  the  house  or  anything  in  it,  because 
to  do  so  would  be  against  the  "definition"  which  pro- 
claims the  phenomenon  to  be  a  "punishment  for 
evil,"  any  attempt  to  prevent  or  check  the  destruction 
would  be  an  impious  act;  the  sinner  would  be  guilty 
of  "resisting  the  supreme  law"  and  would  deserve  to 
be  punished  by  death. 

Now  in  the  second  instance,  a  stricken  building  is 
treated  just  as  any  tree  overturned  by  storm;  the 
people  save  what  they  can  and  try  to  extinguish  the 
fire.  In  both  instances,  the  behavior  of  the  popu- 
lace is  the  same  in  one  respect;  if  caught  in  the  open 
by  a  storm  they  take  refuge  under  a  tree — a  means 
of  safety  involving  maximum  danger  but  the  people 
do  not  know  it. 


48  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

Now  in  the  third  instance,  in  which  the  popula- 
tion have  a  scientifically  correct  definition  of  light- 
ning, they  provide  their  houses  with  lightning  rods; 
and  if  they  are  caught  by  a  storm  in  the  open  they 
neither  run  nor  hide  under  a  tree;  but  when  the 
storm  is  directly  over  their  heads,  they  put  them- 
selves in  a  position  of  minimum  exposure  by  lying  flat 
on  the  ground  until  the  storm  has  passed. 

Such  examples  could  be  given  without  end,  but 
there  is  another  example  of  sufficient  vital  impor- 
tance to  be  given  here,  as  it  has  to  do  with  our  con- 
ception of  the  social  and  economic  system,  and  the 
state.  If  our  institutions  are  considered  "God- 
given" — sacred  and  therefore  static — every  re- 
former or  advocate  of  change  should  be  treated  as 
a  criminal  or  "a  danger  to  the  existing  order"  and 
hanged  or  at  least  put  in  jail  for  life.  But  now,  if 
our  institutions  are  "man  made,"  imperfect  and  often 
foolish,  and  subject  to  change  all  the  time  steadily 
and  dynamically  in  obedience  to  some  known  or  un- 
known law;  then  of  course  all  reactionaries  would 
be  a  "danger  to  the  natural  order"  and  they  should 
be  treated  the  same  way.  The  importance  of  defi- 
nitions can  be  seen  in  all  other  fields  of  practical  life; 
definitions  create  conditions.  To  know  the  world  in 
which  we  live,  we  have  to  analyse  facts  by  help  of 
such  facts  as  we  know  in  daily  practice  and  such  facts 
as  are  established  in  scientific  laboratories  where  men 


CLASSES  OF  LIFE  49 

do  not  jump  to  conclusions.  In  some  places  it  will 
be  necessary  to  make  statements  that  will  have  to 
await  full  justification  at  a  later  stage  of  the  dis- 
cussion. This  will  be  necessary  to  indicate  the  trend 
of  the  analysis. 

The  aim  of  the  analysis  is  to  give  us  just  concep- 
tions, correct  definitions,  and  true  propositions.  The 
process  is  slow,  progressive,  and  endless.  The  prob- 
lems are  infinitely  many,  and  it  is  necessary  to  select. 
Fortunately  the  solution  of  a  few  leads  automatically 
to  the  solution  of  many  others.  Some  of  the  greatest 
and  most  far-reaching  scientific  discoveries  have  been 
nothing  else  than  a  few  correct  definitions,  a  few 
just  concepts  and  a  few  true  propositions.  Such,  for 
example,  was  the  work  of  Euclid,  Newton  and 
Leibnitz — a  few  correct  definitions,  a  few  just  con- 
cepts, a  few  true  propositions;  but  these  have  been 
extended  and  multiplied,  sometimes  by  men  of  crea- 
tive genius,  and  often  almost  automatically  by  men 
of  merely  good  sense  and  fair  talent. 

The  matter  of  definition,  I  have  said,  is  very  im- 
portant. I  am  not  now  speaking  of  nominal  defi- 
nitions, which  for  convenience  merely  give  names  to 
known  objects.  I  am  speaking  of  such  definitions 
of  phenomena  as  result  from  correct  analysis  of  the 
phenomena.  Nominal  definitions  are  mere  conven- 
iences and  are  neither  true  nor  false;  but  analytic 
definitions  are  definitive  propositions  and  are  true 


50  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

or  else  false.  Let  us  dwell  upon  the  matter  a  litde 
more. 

In  the  illustration  of  the  definitions  of  lightning, 
there  were  three;  the  first  was  the  most  mistaken 
and  its  application  brought  the  most  harm;  the  sec- 
ond was  less  incorrect  and  the  practical  results  less 
bad;  the  third  under  the  present  conditions  of  our 
knowledge,  was  the  "true  one"  and  it  brought  the 
maximum  benefit.  This  lightning  illustration  sug- 
gests the  important  idea  of  relative  truth  and  rela- 
tive falsehood — the  idea,  that  is,  of  degrees  of 
truth  and  degrees  of  falsehood.  A  definition  may 
be  neither  absolutely  true  nor  absolutely  false;  but 
of  two  definitions  of  the  same  thing,  one  of  them 
may  be  truer  or  falser  than  the  other. 

If,  for  illustration's  sake,  we  call  the  first  "  truth  " 
Ay  (alpha  i),  the  second  one  A%  (alpha  2),  the  third 
one  As  (alpha  3),  we  may  suppose  that  a  genius 
appears  who  has  the  faculty  to  surpass  all  the  other 
relative  truths  AI,  A^  As,  .  .  .  An  and  gives  us  an 
absolute  or  final  truth,  VALID  IN  INFINITY  (A^)  say  a 
final  definition,  that  lightning  is  so  ...  and  so  .  .  ., 
a  kind  of  energy  which  flows,  let  us  say,  through  a 
glass  tube  filled  with  charcoal.  Then  of  course 
this  definition  would  immediately  make  obvious 
what  use  could  be  made  of  it.  We  could  erect 
glass  towers  filled  with  charcoal  and  so  secure  an 
unlimited  flow  of  available  free  energy  and  our 


CLASSES  OF  LIFE  51 

whole  life  would  be  affected  in  an  untold  degree. 
This  example  explains  the  importance  of  correct 
definitions. 

But  to  take  another  example:  there  is  such  a 
thing  as  a  phenomenon  called  the  "  color "  red. 
Imagine  how  it  might  be  defined.  A  reactionary 
would  call  it  a  "Bolshevik"  (Ai)',  a  Bolshevik 
would  say  "  My  color  "  (A%) ;  a  color-blind  person 
would  say  "such  a  thing  does  not  exist  "(^3); 
a  Daltonist  would  say  "  that  is  green "  (A±) ;  a 
metaphysician  would  say  "  that  is  the  soul  of 
whiskey"  (^5);  an  historian  would  say  "that  is 
the  color  of  the  ink  with  which  human  history  has 
been  written"  (A&);  an  uneducated  person  would 
say  "  that  is  the  color  of  blood  "  (A-?) ;  the  modern 
scientist  would  say  "  it  is  the  light  of  such  and 
such  wave  length  "(Ai).  If  this  last  definition  be 
"  valid  in  infinity  "  or  not  we  do  not  know,  but  it  is, 
nevertheless,  a  "  scientific  truth  "  in  the  present 
condition  of  our  knowledge. 

This  final  but  unknown  "truth  valid  in  infinity" 
is  somehow  perceived  or  felt  by  us  as  an  ideal,  for 
in  countless  years  of  observation  we  have  formed 
a  series  of  less  and  less  false,  more  and  more  nearly 
true  "ideas"  about  the  phenomenon.  "The  "ideas" 
are  reflexes  of  the  phenomenon,  reflected  in  our 
midst  as  in  a  mirror;  the  reflexes  may  be  distorted, 
as  in  a  convex  or  concave  mirror,  but  they  suggest 


52  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

an  ideal  reflex  valid  in  infinity.  It  is  of  the  utmost 
importance  to  realize  that  the  words  which  are  used 
to  express  the  ideas  and  the  ideals  are  THE  MATE- 
RIALIZATION of  the  ideas  and  ideal;  it  is  only  by 
words  that  we  are  enabled  to  give  to  other  human 
beings  an  exact  or  nearly  exact  impression  which 
we  have  had  of  the  phenomenon. 

It  may  be  helpful  to  illustrate  this  process  by  an 
example.  Let  us  suppose  that  a  man  makes  an 
experiment  of  doing  his  own  portrait  from  a  mirror, 
which  may  be  plane,  concave  or  convex.  If  he  looks 
into  a  plane  mirror,  he  will  see  his  true  likeness; 
even  so,  if  he  be  a  poor  designer,  he  will  draw  the 
likeness  badly.  Let  us  suppose  that  the  man  has 
beautiful  features  but  because  the  drawing  is  very 
poor,  it  will  not  convey  the  impression  that  the 
features  of  the  original  were  beautiful.  If  this  poor 
designer  were  to  look  into  and  work  from  a  concave 
or  convex  mirror,  the  drawing  of  his  likeness  would 
have  practically  no  resemblance  to  his  original 
features. 

For  correct  analysis  and  true  definitions  of  the 
cardinal  classes  of  life  in  our  world  it  is  necessary 
to  have  some  just  ideas  about  dimensions  or  dimen- 
sionality. The  Britannica  gives  us  some  help  in 
this  connection.  I  will  explain  briefly  by  an  example. 
Measurable  entities  of  different  kinds  can  not  be 
compared  directly.  Each  one  must  be  measured  in 


CLASSES  or  LIFE  53 

terms  of  a  unit  of  its  own  kind.  A  line  can  have 
only  length  and  therefore  is  of  one  dimension:  a  sur- 
face has  length  and  width  and  is  therefore  said  to 
have  two  dimensions ;  a  volume  has  length,  width  and 
thickness  and  is,  therefore,  said  to  have  three  dimen- 
sions. If  we  take,  for  example,  a  volume — say  a 
cube — we  see  that  the  cube  has  surfaces  and  lines  and 
points,  but  a  volume  is  not  a  surface  nor  a  line  nor 
a  point.  Just  these  dimensional  differences  have  an 
enormous  unrealized  importance  in  practical  life,  as 
in  the  case  of  taking  a  line  of  five  units  of  length 
and  building  upon  it  a  square,  the  measure  of  this 
square  (surface)  will  not  be  5,  it  will  be  25;  and 
the  25  will  not  be  25  linear  units  but  25  square  or 
surface  units.  If  upon  this  square  we  build  a  cube, 
this  cube  will  have  neither  5  nor  25  for  its  measure; 
it  will  have  125,  and  this  number  will  not  be  so  many 
units  of  length  nor  of  surface  but  so  many  solid  or 
cubic  units. 

It  is  as  plain  as  a  pike  staff  that,  if  we  confused 
dimensions  when  computing  lengths  and  areas  and 
volumes,  we  would  wreck  all  the  architectural  and 
engineering  structures  of  the  world,  and  at  the  same 
time  show  ourselves  stupider  than  block-heads. 

To  analyse  the  classes  of  life  we  have  to  consider 
two  very  different  kinds  of  phenomena :  the  one 
embraced  under  the  collective  name  —  Inorganic 
chemistry — the  other  under  the  collective  name — 


54  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

Organic  chemistry,  or  the  chemistry  of  hydro-car- 
bons. These  divisions  are  made  because  of  the  pecu- 
liar properties  of  the  elements  chiefly  involved  in  the 
second  class.  The  properties  of  matter  are  so  dis- 
tributed among  the  elements  that  three  of  them — 
Oxygen,  Hydrogen,  and  Carbon — possess  an  en- 
semble of  unique  characteristics.  The  number  of 
reactions  in  inorganic  chemistry  are  relatively  few, 
but  in  organic  chemistry — in  the  chemistry  of  these 
three  elements  the  number  of  different  compounds  is 
practically  unlimited.  Up  to  1910,  we  knew  of  more 
than  79  elements  of  which  the  whole  number  of  re- 
actions amounted  to  only  a  few  hundreds,  but  among 
the  remaining  three  elements — Carbon,  Hydrogen 
and  Oxygen — the  reactions  were  known  to  be  prac- 
tically unlimited  in  number  and  possibilities ;  this  fact 
must  have  very  far  reaching  consequences.  As  far 
as  energies  are  concerned,  we  have  to  take  them  as 
nature  reveals  them  to  us.  Here  more  than  ever, 
mathematical  thinking  is  essential  and  will  help  enor- 
mously. The  reactions  in  inorganic  chemistry 
always  involve  the  phenomenon  of  heat,  sometimes 
light,  and  in  some  instances  an  unusual  energy  is 
produced  called  electricity.  Until  now,  the  radio- 
active elements  represent  a  group  too  insufficiently 
known  for  an  enlargement  here  upon  this  subject. 

The  organic  compounds  being  unlimited  in  number 
and  possibilities  and  with  their  unique  characteristics, 


CLASSES  OF  LIFE  55 

represent  of  course,  a  different  class  of  phenomena, 
but  being,  at  the  same  time,  chemical  they  include 
the  basic  chemical  phenomena  involved  in  all  chem- 
ical reactions,  but  being  unique  in  many  other  re- 
spects, they  also  have  an  infinitely  vast  field  of  unique 
characteristics.  Among  the  energetic  phenomena  of 
organic  chemistry,  besides  the  few  mentioned  above 
there  are  NEW  AND  UNIQUE  energetic  phenomena 
occurring  in  this  dimension. 

Of  these  phenomena,  mention  may  be  made  of 
the  phenomenon  "life,"  the  phenomenon  of  the  "in- 
stincts" and  of  the  "mind"  in  general.  These  ener- 
getic phenomena  are  unique  for  the  unique  chemistry 
of  the  three  unique  elements.  It  is  obvious  that  this 
"uniqueness"  is  the  reason  why  these  phenomena 
must  be  classified  as  belonging  to  or  having  a  higher 
dimensionality  than  belongs  to  the  phenomena  of  in- 
organic chemistry  just  as  the  uniqueness  of  the  prop- 
erties of  a  volume  as  compared  with  surface  prop- 
erties depends  upon  the  fact  that  a  volume  has  a 
higher  dimensionality  than  a  surface.  Just  as  this 
difference  of  dimensions  makes  the  whole  difference 
between  the  geometry  of  volumes  and  the  geometry 
of  surfaces,  the  difference  between  the  two  chemis- 
tries involves  a  difference  of  dimensionality. 

The  higher  energies  of  the  chemistries  of  tKe 
higher  dimensionality  are  very  difficult  to  define;  my 
descriptions  are  no  better  than  the  description  of 


56  MANHOOD  or  HUMANITY 

life  given  by  Professor  Wilhelm  Roux,  in  his  Der 
Kampf  der  Teile  im  Organismus,  Leipzig,  1881, 
which  are  equally  unsatisfactory.  In  want  of  a  bet- 
ter, I  quote  him.  He  defines  a  living  being  as  a  natu- 
ral object  which  possesses  the  following  nine  char- 
acteristic autonomous  activities :  Autonomous  change, 
Autonomous  excretion,  Autonomous  ingestion,  Au- 
tonomous assimilation,  Autonomous  growth,  Auton- 
omous movement,  Autonomous  multiplication,  Au- 
tonomous transmission  of  hereditary  characteristics 
and  Autonomous  development.  The  words  "Au- 
tonomous activities"  are  important  because  they  hint 
•at  the  dimensional  differences  of  these  energies.  But 
a  better  word  should  be  found  to  define  the  dimen- 
sional differences  between  the  activities  found  in 
inorganic  chemistry  and  those  found  in  organic 
chemistry.  We  see  it  is  a  mistake  to  speak  about 
"life"  in  a  crystal,  in  the  same  sense  in  which  we 
use  the  word  life  to  name  the  curious  AUTONOMOUS 
phenomenon  of  ORGANIC  CHEMISTRY,  WHICH  is  OF 
ANOTHER  DIMENSION  than  the  activities  in  inorganic 
chemistry.  For  the  so-called  life  in  the  crystals — 
the  not  AUTONOMOUS  (or  anautonomous)  activities 
of  crystals — another  word  than  life  should  be  found. 
In  the  theory  of  crystals  the  term  life  is  purely 
rhetorical:  its  use  there  is  very  injurious  to  sound 
science.  These  old  ideas  of  "life"  in  crystals  are 
profoundly  unscientific  and  serve  as  one  of  the  best 


CLASSES  OF  LITE  57 

examples  of  the  frequent  confusion  or  intermixing 
of  dimensions — a  confusion  due  to  unmathematical, 
logically  incorrect  ways  of  thinking.  If  crystals 
"live,"  then  volumes  are  surfaces,  and  125  cubic 
units=25  square  units — absurdities  belonging  to  the 
"childhood  of  humanity." 

"Crystals  can  grow  in  a  proper  solution,  and  can  regen- 
erate their  form  in  such  a  solution  when  broken  or  injured; 
it  is  even  possible  to  prevent  or  retard  the  formation  of 
crystals  in  a  supersaturated  solution  by  preventing  'germs' 
in  the  air  from  getting  into  the  solution,  an  observation  which 
was  later  utilized  by  Schroeder  and  Pasteur  in  their  experi- 
ments on  spontaneous  generation.  However,  the  analogies 
between  a  living  organism  and  a  crystal  are  merely  superficial 
and  it  is  by  pointing  out  the  fundamental  differences  between 
the  behavior  of  crystals  and  that  of  living  organisms  that 
we  can  best  understand  the  specific  difference  between  non- 
living and  living  matter.  It  is  true  that  a  crystal  can  grow, 
but  it  will  do  so  only  in  a  supersaturated  solution  of  its  own 
substance.  Just  the  reverse  is  true  for  living  organisms.  In 
order  to  make  bacteria  or  the  cells  of  our  body  grow,  solu- 
tions of  the  split  products  of  the  substances  composing  them 
and  not  the  substances  themselves  must  be  available  to  the 
cells;  second,  these  solutions  must  not  be  supersaturated,  on 
the  contrary,  they  must  be  dilute;  and  third,  growth  leads 
in  living  organisms  to  cell  division  as  soon  as  the  mass  of 
the  cell  reaches  a  certain  limit.  This  process  of  cell  division 
can  not  be  claimed  even  metaphorically  to  exist  in  a  crystal. 
A  correct  appreciation  of  these  facts  will  give  us  an  insight 
into  the  specific  difference  between  non-living  and  living  mat- 
ter. The  formation  of  living  matter  consists  in  the  synthesis 
of  the  proteins,  nucleins,  fats,  and  carbohydrates  of  the  cells, 
from  split  products.  .  .  . 


58  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

"The  essential  difference  between  living  and  non-living 
matter  consists  then  in  this:  the  living  cell  synthesizes  its 
own  complicated  specific  material  from  indifferent  or  non- 
specific simple  compounds  of  the  surrounding  medium,  while 
the  crystal  simply  adds  the  molecules  found  in  its  super- 
saturated solution.  This  synthetic  power  of  transforming 
small  'building  stones'  into  the  complicated  compounds 
specific  for  each  organism  is  the  'secret  of  life'  or  rather  one 
of  the  secrets  of  life."  (The  Organism  as  a  Whole,  by 
Jacques  Loeb.) 

It  will  be  explained  later  that  one  of  the  energetic 
phenomena  of  organic  chemistry — the  "mind," 
which  is  one  of  the  energies  characteristic  of  this 
class  of  phenomena,  is  "autonomous,"  is  "selfpro- 
pelling"  and  true  to  its  dimensionality.  If  we 
analyse  the  classes  of  life,  we  readily  find  that  there 
are  three  cardinal  classes  which  are  radically  distinct 
in  function.  A  short  analysis  will  disclose  to  us  that, 
though  minerals  have  various  activities,  they  are  not 
"living."  The  plants  have  a  very  definite  and  well 
known  function — the  transformation  of  solar  energy 
into  organic  chemical  energy.  They  are  a  class  of 
life  which  appropriates  one  kind  of  energy,  converts 
it  into  another  kind  and  stores  it  up;  in  that  sense 
they  are  a  kind  of  storage  battery  for  the  solar 
energy;  and  so  I  define  THE  PLANTS  AS  THE  CHEM- 
ISTRY-BINDING class  of  life. 

The  animals  use  the  highly  dynamic  products  of 
the  chemistry-binding  class — the  plants — as  food, 


CLASSES  or  LIFE  59 

and  those  products — the  results  of  plant-transforma- 
tion— undergo  in  animals  a  further  transformation 
into  yet  higher  forms;  and  the  animals  are  corre- 
spondingly a  more  dynamic  class  of  life ;  their  energy 
is  kinetic;  they  have  a  remarkable  freedom  and 
power  which  the  plants  do  not  possess — I  mean  the 
freedom  and  faculty  to  move  about  in  space;  and  so 
I  define  ANIMALS  AS  THE  SPACE-BINDING  CLASS  OF 
LIFE. 

And  now  what  shall  we  say  of  human  beings? 
What  is  to  be  our  definition  of  Man?  Like  the  ani- 
mals, human  beings  do  indeed  possess  the  space- 
binding  capacity  but,  over  and  above  that,  human 
beings  possess  a  most  remarkable  capacity  which  is 
entirely  peculiar  to  them — I  mean  the  capacity  to 
summarise,  digest  and  appropriate  the  labors  and 
experiences  of  the  past;  I  mean  the  capacity  to  use 
the  fruits  of  past  labors  and  experiences  as  intellec- 
tual or  spiritual  capital  for  developments  in  the 
present;  I  mean  the  capacity  to  employ  as  instru- 
ments of  increasing  power  the  accumulated  achieve- 
ments of  the  all-precious  lives  of  the  past  generations- 
spent  in  trial  and  error,  trial  and  success;  I  mean  the 
capacity  of  human  beings  to  conduct  their  lives  in 
the  ever  increasing  light  of  inherited  wisdom;  I  mean 
the  capacity  in  virtue  of  which  man  is  at  once  the 
heritor  of  the  by-gone  ages  and  the  trustee  of  pos- 
terity. And  because  humanity  is  just  this  magnifi- 


60  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

cent  natural  agency  by  which  the  past  lives  in  the 
present  and  the  present  for  the  future,  I  define 
HUMANITY,  in  the  universal  tongue  of  mathematics 
and  mechanics,  to  be  the  TIME-BINDING  CLASS  OF 
LIFE. 

These  definitions  of  the  cardinal  classes  of  life 
are,  it  will  be  noted,  obtained  from  direct  observa- 
tion; they  are  so  simple  and  so  important  that  I  can- 
not over-emphasize  the  necessity  of  grasping  them 
and  most  especially  the  definition  of  Man.  For  these 
simple  definitions  and  especially  that  of  Humanity 
will  profoundly  transform  the  whole  conception  of 
human  life  in  every  field  of  interest  and  activity; 
and,  what  is  more  important  than  all,  the  definition 
of  Man  will  give  us  a  starting  point  for  discovering 
the  natural  laws  of  human  nature — of  the  human 
class  of  life.  The  definitions  of  the  classes  of  life 
represent  the  different  classes  as  distinct  in  respect 
to  dimensionality;  and  this  is  extremely  important 
for  no  measure  or  rule  of  one  class  can  be  applied 
to  the  other,  without  making  grave  mistakes.  For 
example,  to  treat  a  human  being  as  an  animal — as 
a  mere  space-binder — because  humans  have  certain 
animal  propensities,  is  an  error  of  the  same  type  and 
grossness  as  to  treat  a  cube  as  a  surface  because  it 
has  surface  properties.  It  is  absolutely  essential  to 
grasp  that  fact  if  we  are  ever  to  have  a  science 
of  human  nature. 


CLASSES  OF  LIFE  61 

We  can  represent  the  different  classes  of  life  in 
three  life  coordinates.  The  minerals,  with  their  in- 
organic activities  would  be  the  Zero  (o)  dimension 
of  "life" — that  is  the  lifeless  class — here  represented 
by  the  point  M. 

The  plants,  with  their  "autonomous"  growth,  to 
be  represented  by  the  ONE  DIMENSIONAL  line  MP. 

The  animals,  with  their  "autonomous"  capacity 
to  grow  and  to  be  active  in  space  by  the  TWO  DIMEN- 
SIONAL plane  PAM. 

The  humans,  with  their  "autonomous"  capacity  to 
grow,  to  be  active  in  space  AND  TO  BE  ACTIVE  IN 
TIME,  by  the  THREE  DIMENSIONAL  region  MAPH. 

H  (Humans) 


(Minerals)  M 


(Plants) 


(Animals) 

Such  diagrammatic  illustrations  must  not  be  taken 
too  literally;  they  are  like  figures  of  speech — helpful 
if  understood — harmful  if  not  understood.  The 
reader  should  reflect  upon  the  simple  idea  of  dimen- 


62  MANHOOD  or  HUMANITY 

sions  until  he  sees  clearly  that  the  idea  is  not  merely 
a  thing  of  interest  or  of  convenience,  but  is  abso- 
lutely essential  as  a  means  of  discriminating  the  car- 
dinal classes  of  life  from  one  another  and  of  con- 
ceiving each  class  to  be  what  it  is  instead  of  mixing 
it  confusedly  with  something  radically  different.  It 
will  greatly  help  the  reader  if  he  will  retire  to  the 
quiet  of  his  cloister  and  there  meditate  about  as 
follows.  A  line  has  one  dimension ;  a  plane  has  two ; 
a  plane  contains  lines  and  so  it  has  line  properties — 
ow^-dimensional  properties — but  it  has  other  prop- 
erties— fwo-dimensional  properties — and  it  is  these 
that  are  peculiar  to  it,  give  it  its  own  character, 
and  make  it  what  it  is — a  plane  and  not  a  line. 
So  animals  have  some  plant  properties — they 
grow,  for  example — but  animals  have  other  prop- 
erties— autonomous  mobility,  for  example, — 
properties  of  higher  dimensionality  or  type — and 
it  is  these  that  make  animals  animals  and  not 
plants.  Just  so,  human  beings  have  certain  ani- 
mal properties — autonomous  mobility,  for  example, 
or  physical  appetites — but  humans  have  other  prop- 
erties or  propensities — ethical  sense,  for  example, 
logical  sense,  inventiveness,  progressiveness — prop- 
erties or  propensities  of  higher  dimensionality,  level, 
or  type — and  it  is  these  propensities  and  powers 
that  make  human  beings  human  and  not  animal. 
When  and  only  when  this  fact  is  clearly  seen  and 


CLASSES  OF  LIFE  63 

keenly  realized,  there  will  begin  the  science  of  man 
* — the  science  and  art  of  human  nature — for  then 
and  only  then  we  shall  begin  to  escape  from  the  age- 
long untold  immeasurable  evils  that  come  from  re- 
garding and  treating  human  beings  as  animals,  as 
mere  binders  of  space,  and  we  may  look  forward 
to  an  ethics,  a  jurisprudence  and  economics,  a  gov- 
ernance— a  science  and  art  of  human  life  and  so- 
ciety— based  upon  the  laws  of  human  nature  because 
based  upon  the  just  conception  of  humanity  as  the 
time-binding  class  of  life,  creators  and  improvers  of 
good,  destined  to  endless  advancement,  in  accord 
with  the  potencies  of  Human  Nature.* 

*  It  may  be  contended  by  some  that  animals  have  been  making 
"progress"  or  some  may  say  that  animals  also  "bind-time." 
This  use  of  words  would  again  become  mere  verbalism,  a  mere 
talking  about  words — mere  speculation  having  nothing  to  do 
with  facts  or  with  correct  thinking,  in  which  there  is  no  inter- 
mixing of  dimensions.  The  peculiar  faculty  belonging  exclusively 
to  humans  which  I  designate  as  "time-binding"  I  have  clearly 
defined  as  an  exponential  function  of  time  in  the  following  chapter. 
If  people  are  pleased  to  talk  about  the  "progress"  of  animals, 
they  can  hardly  fail  to  see  clearly  that  it  differs  both  in  function 
and  in  type  or  dimension  from  what  is  rightly  meant  by  human 
progress;  human  time-binding  capacity  lies  in  an  entirely  dif- 
ferent dimension  from  that  of  animals.  So,  if  any  persons  wish 
to  talk  of  animal  "progress"  or  animal  "time-binding,"  they 
should  invent  a  suitable  word  for  it  to  save  them  from  the 
blunder  of  confusing  types  or  mixing  dimensions. 

This  mathematical  discrimination  between  classes,  types, 
dimensions  is  of  the  utmost  importance  in  the  natural  sciences, 
because  of  the  transmutation  of  species.  To  adjust  the  Darwin 
theory  to  dimensionality  is  a  somewhat  more  difficult  problem; 
it  involves  the  concept  of  the  "continuum";  but  with  the 
modern  theory  of  de  Vries,  these  things  are  self  evident.  If 
animals  really  progress,  which  is  doubtful  because  they  are  an 


64  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

Humanity  is  still  in  its  childhood;  we  have 
"bound"  so  little  time  in  the  course  of  the  centuries, 
which  are  so  brief  in  the  scheme  of  the  universe.  At 
the  bottom  of  every  human  activity,  historical  fact 
or  trend  of  civilization,  there  lies  some  doctrine  or 
conception  of  so-called  "truth."  Apples  had  fallen 
from  trees  for  ages,  but  without  any  important  re- 
sults in  the  economy  of  humanity.  The  fact  that  a 
fallen  apple  hit  Newton,  led  to  the  discovery  of  the 
theory  of  gravitation;  this  changed  our  whole  world 
conception,  our  sciences  and  our  activities;  it  power- 
fully stimulated  the  development  of  all  the  branches 
of  natural  and  technological  knowledge.  Even  in 
the  event  of  the  Newtonian  laws  being  proved  to  be 
not  quite  correct,  they  have  served  a  great  purpose 
in  enabling  us  to  understand  natural  phenomena  in 
a  sufficiently  approximate  way  to  make  it  possible  to 
build  up  modern  technology  and  to  develop  our 
physical  science  to  the  point  where  it  was  necessary 
and  possible  to  make  a  correction  of  the  Newtonian 
laws. 

A  similar  organic  change  in  our  conception  of 
human  life  and  its  phenomena  is  involved  in  the  fore- 
going definitions  of  the  classes  of  life;  they  will  re- 
place basic  errors  with  scientific  truths  of  fundamen- 

older  form  of  life  than  humans  and  they  have  not  shown  any 
noticeable  progress  to  the  knowledge  of  man,  their  progress  is 
so  small  in  comparison  with  man's  that  it  may  be  said,  in  mathe- 
matical terms,  to  be  negligible  as  an  infinitesimal  of  higher  order. 


CLASSES  OF  LIFE  65 

tal  importance ;  they  will  form  the  basis  for  scientific 
development  of  a  permanent  civilization  in  place  of 
the  periodically  convulsive  so-called  civilizations  of 
the  past  and  present.  To  know  the  cause  of  evil  and 
error  is  to  find  the  cure. 


CHAPTER  IV5 

WHAT  IS  MAN? 

TVTAN  has  ever  been  the  greatest  puzzle  to  man. 
^  •*•  There  are  many  and  important  reasons  for 
this  fact.  As  the  subject  of  this  book  is  not  a  theo- 
retical, academic  study  of  man,  of  which  too  many 
have  already  been  written,  I  will  not  recount  the 
reasons,  but  will  confine  myself  to  the  more  pressing 
matters  of  the  task  in  hand,  which  is  that  of  pointing 
the  way  to  the  science  and  art  of  Human  Engineer- 
ing. The  two  facts  which  have  to  be  dealt  with  first, 
are  the  two  which  have  most  retarded  human  prog- 
ress: (i)  there  has  never  been  a  true  definition  of 
man  nor  a  just  conception  of  his  role  in  the  curious 
drama  of  the  world;  in  consequence  of  which  there 
has  never  been  a  proper  principle  or  starting  point 
for  a  science  of  humanity.  It  has  never  been  realized 
that  man  is  a  being  of  a  dimension  or  type  different 
,from  that  of  animals  and  the  characteristic  nature 
of  man  has  not  been  understood;  (2)  man  has 
always  been  regarded  either  as  an  animal  or  as  a 
supernatural  phenomenon.  The  facts  are  that  man 
is  not  supernatural  but  is  literally  a  part  of  nature 

66 


WHAT  is  MAN?  67 

and  that  human  beings  are  not  animals.  We  have 
seen  that  the  animals  are  truly  characterized  by 
their  autonomous  mobility — their  space-binding  ca- 
pacity— animals  are  space-binders.  We  have  seen 
that  human  beings  are  characterized  by  their  creative 
power,  by  the  power  to  make  the  past  live  in  the 
present  and  the  present  for  the  future,  by  their  ca- 
pacity to  bind  time — human  beings  are  time-binders. 
These  concepts  are  basic  and  impersonal;  arrived 
at  mathematically,  they  are  mathematically  correct. 

It  does  not  matter  at  all  how  the  first  man,  the 
first  time-binder,  was  produced;  the  fact  remains 
that  he  was  somewhere,  somehow  produced.  To 
know  anything  that  is  to-day  of  fundamental  interest 
about  man,  we  have  to  analyse  man  in  three  coordi- 
nates— in  three  capacities;  namely,  his  chemistry,  his 
activities  in  space,  and  especially  his  activities  in 
time;  whereas  in  the  study  of  animals  we  have  to 
consider  only  two  factors:  their  chemistry  and  their 
activities  in  space. 

Let  us  imagine  that  the  aboriginal — original 
human  specimen  was  one  of  two  brother  apes,  A 
and  B;  they  were  alike  in  every  respect;  both  were 
animal  space-binders;  but  something  strange  hap- 
pened to  B;  he  became  the  first  time-binder,  a 
human.  No  matter  how,  this  "something"  made  the 
change  in  him  that  lifted  .him  to  a  higher  dimen- 
sion; it  is  enough  that  in  some-wise,  over  and  above 


68  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

his  animal  capacity  for  binding  space,  there  was 
superadded  the  marvelous  new  capacity  for  binding- 
time.  He  had  thus  a  new  faculty,  he  belonged  to 
a  new  dimension;  but,  of  course,  he  did  not  realize 
it;  and  because  he  had  this  new  capacity  he  was 
able  to  analyze  his  brother  "A" ;  he  observed  "A 
is  my  brother;  he  is  an  animal;  but  he  is  my  brother; 
therefeore,  /  AM  AN  ANIMAL."  This  fatal  first  con- 
clusion, reached  by  false  analogy,  by  neglecting  a 
fact,  has  been  the  chief  source  of  human  woe  for 
half  a  million  years  and  it  still  survives.  The  time- 
binding  capacity,  first  manifest  in  B,  increased  more 
and  more,  with  the  days  and  each  generation,  until 
in  the  course  of  centuries  man  felt  himself  increas- 
ingly somehow  different  from  the  animal,  but  he 
could  not  explain.  He  said  to  himself,  "If  I 
am  an  animal  there  is  also  in  me  something  higher, 
a  spark  of  some  thing  supernatural." 

With  this  conclusion  he  estranged  himself,  as 
something  apart  from  nature,  and  formulated  the 
impasse,  which  put  him  in  a  cul-de-sac  of  a  double 
life.  He  was  neither  true  to  the  "supernatural" 
which  he  could  not  know  and  therefore,  could  not 
emulate,  nor  was  he  true  to  the  "animal"  which  he 
scorned.  Having  put  himself  outside  the  "natural 
laws,"  he  was  not  really  true  to  any  law  and  con- 
demned himself  to  a  life  of  hypocrisy,  and  estab- 
lished speculative,  artificial,  unnatural  laws. 


WHAT  is  MAN?  69 

"How  blind  our  familiar  assumptions  make  us! 
Among  the  animals,  man,  at  least,  has  long  been 
wont  to  regard  himself  as  a  being  quite  apart  from 
and  not  as  part  of  the  cosmos  round  about  him. 
From  this  he  has  detached  himself  in  thought,  he  has 
estranged  and  objectified  the  world,  and  lost  the 
sense  that  he  is  of  it.  And  this  age-long  habit  and 
point  of  view,  which  has  fashioned  his  life  and  con- 
trolled his  thought,  lending  its  characteristic  mark 
and  color  to  his  whole  philosophy  and  art  and  learn- 
ing, is  still  maintained,  partly  because  of  its  con- 
venience, no  doubt,  and  partly  by  force  of  inertia 
and  sheer  conservatism,  in  the  very  teeth  of  the 
strongest  probabilities  of  biological  science.  Prob- 
ably no  other  single  hypothesis  has  less  to  recom- 
mend it,  and  yet  no  other  so  completely  dominates 
the  human  mind."  (Cassius  J.  Keyser,  loc.  cit.) 
And  this  monstrous  conception  is  current  to-day: 
millions  still  look  upon  man  as  a  mixture  of  animal 
and  something  supernatural. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  the  engineering  of  human 
society  is  a  difficult  and  complicated  problem  of  tre- 
mendous ethical  responsibility,  for  it  involves  the 
welfare  of  mankind  throughout  an  unending  suc- 
cession of  generations.  The  science  of  Human 
Engineering  can  not  be  built  upon  false  conceptions 
of  human  nature.  It  can  not  be  built  on  the  con- 
ception of  man  as  a  kind  of  animal;  it  can  not  be 


70  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

built  on  the  conception  of  man  as  a  mixture  of  nat- 
ural and  supernatural.  It  must  be  built  upon  the 
conception  of  man  as  being  at  once  natural  and 
higher  in  dimensionality  than  the  animals.  It  must 
be  built  upon  the  scientific  conception  of  mankind  as 
characterized  by  their  time-binding  capacity  and 
function.  This  conception  radically  alters  our  whole 
view  of  human  life,  human  society,  and  the  world. 

It  must  be  obvious  to  any  one  that  time-binding 
is  the  only  natural  criterion  and  standard  for  the 
time-binding  class  of  life.  This  mighty  term — time- 
binding — when  comprehended,  will  be  found  to  em- 
brace the  WHOLE  of  the  natural  laws,  the  natural 
ethics,  the  natural  philosophy,  the  natural  sociology, 
the  natural  economics,  the  natural  governance,  to  be 
brought  into  the  education  of  time-binders;  then 
really  peaceful  and  progressive  civilization,  without 
periodical  collapses  and  violent  readjustments,  will 
commence;  not  before.  Everything  which  is  really 
"time-binding"  is  in  the  HUMAN  DIMENSION;  there- 
fore, it  will  represent  every  quality  that  is  implied 
in  such  words  as — good,  just,  right,  beautiful;  while 
everything  that  is  merely  space-binding  will  be  classi- 
fied as  "animal"  and  be  thus  assessed  at  its  proper 
value.  Those  ignorant  "masters  of  our  destinies" 
who  regard  humans  as  animals  or  as  monstrous 
hybrids  of  natural  and  supernatural  must  be  de- 
throned by  scientific  education. 


WHAT  is  MAN?  71 

Humans  can  be  literally  poisoned  by  false  ideas 
and  false  teachings.  Many  people  have  a  just  horror 
at  the  thought  of  putting  poison  into  tea  or  coffee, 
but  seem  unable  to  realize  that,  when  they  teach  false 
ideas  and  false  doctrines,  they  are  poisoning  the 
time-binding  capacity  of  their  fellow  men  and  women. 
One  has  to  stop  and  think !  There  is  nothing  mystical 
about  the  fact  that  ideas  and  words  are  energies 
which  powerfully  affect  the  physico-chemical  base  of 
our  time-binding  activities.  Humans  are  thus  made 
untrue  to  "human  nature."  Hypnotism  is  a  known 
fact.  It  has  been  proved  that  a  man  can  be  so 
hypnotized  that  in  a  certain  time  which  has  been 
suggested  to  him,  he  will  murder  or  commit  arson 
or  theft;  that,  under  hypnotic  influence,  the  personal 
morale  of  the  individual  has  only  a  small  influence 
upon  his  conduct;  the  subject  obeys  the  hypnotic  sug- 
gestions, no  matter  how  immoral  they  are.  The 
conception  of  man  as  a  mixture  of  animal  and  super- 
natural has  for*  ages  kept  human  beings  under  the 
deadly  spell  of  the  suggestion  that,  animal  selfish- 
ness and  animal  greediness  are  their  essential  char- 
acter, and  the  spell  has  operated  to  suppress  their 
REAL  HUMAN  NATURE  and  to  prevent  it  from  ex- 
pressing itself  naturally  and  freely. 

On  the  other  hand,  when  human  beings  are  edu- 
cated to  a  lively  realization  that  they  are  by  nature 
time-binding  creatures,  then  they  will  spontaneously 


72  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

live  in  accordance  with  their  time-binding  nature, 
•which,  as  I  have  said,  is  the  source  and  support  of 
the  highest  ideals. 

What  is  achieved  in  blaming  a  man  for  being  self- 
ish and  greedy  if  he  acts  under  the  influence  of  a 
social  environment  and  education  which  teach  him 
that  he  is  an  animal  and  that  selfishness  and  greedi- 
ness are  of  the  essence  of  his  nature? 

Even  so  eminent  a  philosopher  and  psychologist  as 
Spencer  tells  us:  "Of  self-evident  truths  so  dealt 
with,  the  one  which  here  concerns  us  is  that  a  crea- 
ture must  live  before  it  can  act.  .  .  .  Ethics  has  to 
recognize  the  truth  that  egoism  comes  before  altru- 
ism." This  is  true  for  ANIMALS,  because  animals 
die  out  from  lack  of  food  when  their  natural  supply 
of  it  is  insufficient  because  they  have  NOT  THE 

CAPACITY  TO  PRODUCE  ARTIFICIALLY.      But  it  is  not 

true  for  the  HUMAN  DIMENSION. 

Why  not?  Because  humans  through  their  time- 
binding  capacity  are  first  of  all  creators  and  so  their 
number  is  not  controlled  by  the  supply  of  unaided 
nature,  but  only  by  men's  artificial  productivity, 

which  is  THE  MATERIALIZATION  OF  THEIR  TIME- 
BINDING  CAPACITY. 

Man,  therefore,  by  the  very  intrinsic  character  of 
his  being,  MUST  ACT  FIRST,  IN  ORDER  TO  BE  ABLE 
TO  LIVE  (through  the  action  of  parents — or  society) 
which  is  not  the  case  with  animals.  The  misunder- 


WHAT  is  MAN?  73 

standing  of  this  simple  truth  is  largely  accountable 
for  the  evil  of  our  ethical  and  economic  systems  or 
lack  of  systems.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  if  humanity 
were  to  live  in  complete  accord  with  the  animal  con- 
ception of  man,  artificial  production — time-binding 
production — would  cease  and  ninety  per  cent  of 
mankind  would  perish  by  starvation.  It  is  just 
because  human  beings  are  not  animals  but  are  time- 
binders — not  mere  finders  but  creators  of  food  and 
shelter — that  they  are  able  to  live  in  such  vast 
numbers. 

Here  even  the  blind  must  see  the  effect  of  higher 
dimensionality,  and  this  effect  becomes  in  turn  the 
cause  of  other  effects  which  produce  still  others,  and 
so  on  in  an  endless  chain.  WE  LIVE  BECAUSE  WE 

PRODUCE,  BECAUSE  WE  ARE  ACTING  IN  TIME  AND 
ARE  NOT  MERELY  ACTING  IN  SPACE BECAUSE  MAN 

is  NOT  A  KIND  OF  ANIMAL.  It  is  all  so  simple,  if 
only  we  apply  a  little  sound  logic  in  our  thinking 
about  human  nature  and  human  affairs.  If  human 
ethics  are  to  be  human,  are  to  be  in  the  human 
dimension,  the  postulates  of  ethics  must  be  changed; 

FOR  HUMANITY  IN  ORDER  TO  LIVE  MUST  ACT  FIRST ; 

the  laws  of  ethics — the  laws  of  right  living — are 
natural  laws — laws  of  human  nature — laws  having 
their  whole  source  and  sanction  in  the  time-binding 
capacity  and  time-binding  activity  peculiar  to  man. 
Human  excellence  is  excellence  in  time-binding,  and 


74  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

must  be  measured  and  rewarded  by  time-binding 
standards  of  worth. 

Humanity,  in  order  to  live,  must  produce  crea- 
tively and  therefore  must  be  guided  by  applied 
science,  by  technology;  and  this  means  that  the  so- 
called  social  sciences  of  ethics,  jurisprudence,  psy- 
chology, economics,  sociology,  politics,  and  govern- 
ment must  be  emancipated  from  medieval  meta- 
physics; they  must  be  made  scientific;  they  must  be 
technologized;  they  must  be  made  to  progress  and 
to  function  in  the  proper  dimension — the  human 
dimension  and  not  that  of  animals:  they  must  be 
made  time-binding  sciences. 

Can  this  be  done?  I  have  no  doubt  that  it  can. 
For  what  is  human  life  after  all? 

To  a  general  in  the  battlefield,  human  life  is  a 
factor  which,  if  properly  used,  can  destroy  the 
enemy.  To  an  engineer  human  life  is  an  equivalent 
to  energy,  or  a  capacity  to  do  work,  mental  or  mus- 
cular, and  the  moment  something  is  found  to  be  a 
source  of  energy  and  to  have  the  capacity  of  doing 
work,  the  first  thing  to  do,  from  the  engineer's  point 
-of  view,  is  to  analyse  the  generator  with  a  view  to 
discovering  how  best  to  conserve  it,  to  improve  it, 
and  bring  it  to  the  level  of  maximum  productivity. 
Human  beings  are  very  complicated  energy-produc- 
ing batteries  differing  widely  in  quality  and  magni- 
tude of  productive  power.  Experience  has  shown 


WHAT  is  MAN?  75 

that  these  batteries  are,  first  of  all,  chemical  bat- 
teries producing  a  mysterious  energy.  If  these  bat- 
teries are  not  supplied  periodically  with  a  more  or 
less  constant  quantity  of  some  chemical  elements 
called  food  and  air,  the  batteries  will  cease  to  func- 
tion— they  will  die.  In  the  examination  of  the  struc- 
ture of  these  batteries  we  find  that  the  chemical  base 
is  very  much  accentuated  all  through  the  structure. 
This  chemical  generator  is  divided  into  branches 
each  of  which  has  a  very  different  role  which  it 
must  perform  in  harmony  with  all  the  others.  The 
mechanical  parts  of  the  structure  are  built  in  con- 
formity to  the  rules  of  mechanics  and  are  automat- 
ically furnished  with  lubrication  and  with  chemical 
supplies  for  automatically  renewing  worn-out  parts. 
The  chemical  processes  not  only  deposit  particles  of 
mass  for  the  structure  of  the  generator  but  produce 
some  very  powerful  unknown  kinds  of  energies  or 
vibrations  which  make  all  the  chemical  parts  func- 
tion ;  we  find  also  a  mysterious  apparatus  with  a  com- 
plex of  wires  which  we  call  brain  glands,  and  nerves; 
and,  finally,  these  human  batteries  have  the  remark- 
able capacity  of  reproduction. 

These  functions  are  familiar  to  everybody.  From 
the  knowledge  of  other  physical,  mechanical  and 
chemical  phenomena  of  nature,  we  must  come  to  the 
conclusion,  that  this  human  battery  is  the  most  per- 
fect example  of  a  complex  engine;  it  has  all  the 


76  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

peculiarities  of  a  chemical  battery  combined  with  a 
generator  of  a  peculiar  energy  called  life;  above  all, 
it  has  mental  or  spiritual  capacities;  it  is  thus 
equipped  with  both  mental  and  mechanical  means  for 
producing  work.  The  parts  and  functions  of  this 
marvelous  engine  have  been  the  subject  of  a  vast 
amount  of  research  in  various  special  branches  of 
science.  A  very  noteworthy  fact  is  that  both  the 
physical  work  and  the  mental  work  of  this  human 
engine  are  always  accompanied  by  both  physical  and 
chemical  changes  in  the  structure  of  its  machinery — 
corresponding  to  the  wear  and  tear  of  non-living 
engines.  It  also  presents  certain  sexual  and  spiritual 
phenomena  that  have  a  striking  likeness  to  certain 
phenomena,  especially  wireless  phenomena,  to  elec- 
tricity and  to  radium.  This  human  engine-battery 
is  of  unusual  strength,  durability  and  perfection;  and 
yet  it  is  very  liable  to  damage  and  even  wreckage,  if 
not  properly  used.  The  controlling  factors  are  very 
delicate  and  so  the  engine  is  very  capricious.  Very 
special  training  and  understanding  are  necessary  for 
its  control. 

The  reader  may  wish  to  ask:  What  is  the  essence 
of  the  time-binding  power  of  Man?  Talk  of  es- 
sences is  metaphysical — it  is  not  scientific.  Let  me 
explain  by  an  example. 

What  is  electricity?  The  scientific  answer  is:  elec- 
tricity is  that  which  exhibits  such  and  such  phe- 


WHAT  is  MAN?  77 

nomena.  Electricity  means  nothing  but  a  certain 
group  of  phenomena  called  electric.  We  are  study- 
ing electricity  when  we  are  studying  those  phe- 
nomena. Thus  it  is  in  physics — there  is  no  talk  of 
essences.  So,  too,  in  Human  Engineering — we 
shall  not  talk  of  the  essence  of  time-binding  but  only 
of  the  phenomena  and  the  laws  thereof.  What  has 
led  to  the  development  of  electric  appliances  is 
knowledge  of  electrical  phenomena — not  meta- 
physical talk  about  the  electrical  essence.  And  what 
will  lead  to  the  science  and  art  of  Human  Engineer- 
ing is  knowledge  of  time-binding  phenomena — not 
vain  babble  about  an  essence  of  time-binding  power. 
There  is  no  mystery  about  the  word  time-binding. 
Some  descriptive  term  was  necessary  to  indicate  that 
human  capacity  which  discriminates  human  beings 
from  animals  and  marks  man  as  man.  For  that  use 
— the  appropriateness  of  the  term  time-binding 
becomes  more  and  more  manifest  upon  reflection. 

What  are  the  conditions  of  life  upon  this  earth? 
Is  there  war  or  peace  in  daily  life?  All  living  beings 
require  food;  they  multiply  in  a  geometrical  ratio; 
and  so  the  natural  productivity  of  the  soil  becomes 
increasingly  inadequate.  The  tendency  to  increase 
in  geometrical  ratio  is  true  of  all  life — vegetable, 
animal  and  human,  but  the  tendency  is  checked  by 
various  counteracting  influences,  natural  and  artifi- 
cial. A  short  time  ago  these  checks  had  so  operated 


,78  MANHOOD  or  HUMANITY 

to  annul  the  law  of  increase  as  almost  to  stop  the 
growth  of  human  population.  It  is  only  by  the  time- 
binding  capacity  of  man — by  scientific  progress  and 
technological  invention — that  the  checks  have  been 
overcome.  And  so  in  the  last  century  the  popula- 
tion of  Europe  increased  more  than  it  had  increased 
in  several  centuries  before.  Impoverished  soil,  exces- 
sive heat  or  cold,  excessive  moisture,  the  lack  of  rain- 
fall, and  many  other  factors  are  hostile  to  life.  It 
is  evident,  therefore,  that  human  life  must  especially 
struggle  for  existence;  it  must  carry  on  a  perpetual 
contest  for  self  preservation.  It  seems  obvious  that, 
if  there  is  perpetual  war  in  every-day  life,  war 
methods  must  be  applied. 

We  have  just  .passed  through  a  tremendous  world- 
wide military  war  and  we  developed  special  ways  of 
producing  power  to  overcome  the  enemy.  We  were 
thus  driven  to  discover  some  of  the  hidden  sources 
of  power  and  all  of  our  old  habits  and  ideas  were 
bent  toward  military  methods  and  military  tech- 
nology. The  war  of  every-day  life  against  hostile 
elements  is  war  for  the  subjugation  of  physical 
nature  and  not  for  the  conquest  of  people.  It  is  a 
war  carried  on  by  the  time-binding  power  of  men 
pitted  against  natural  obstacles,  and  its  progressive 
triumph  means  progressive  advancement  in  human 
weal. 

The  lesson   of  the  World  War  should  not  be 


WHAT  is  MAN?  79 

missed  through  failure  to  analyse  it.  When  nations 
war  with  nations,  the  normal  daily  war  of  millions 
and  millions  of  individuals  to  subjugate  natural  re- 
sources to  human  uses  is  interrupted,  and  the  slow- 
gathered  fruits  of  measureless  toil  are  destroyed. 

But  peaceful  war,  war  for  the  conquest  of  nature, 
involves  the  use  of  methods  of  technology  and,  what 
is  even  more  important,  technological  philosophy, 
law  and  ethics. 

What  I  want  to  emphasize  in  this  little  book,  is 
the  need  of  a  thoroughgoing  revision  of  our  ideas; 
and  the  revision  must  be  made  by  engineering  minds 
in  order  that  our  ideas  may  be  made  to  match  facts. 
If  we  are  ill,  we  consult  a  physician  or  a  surgeon, 
not  a  charlatan.  We  must  learn  that,  when  there  is 
trouble  with  the  producing  power  of  the  world,  we 
have  to  consult  an  engineer,  an  expert  on  power. 
Politicians,  diplomats,  and  lawyers  do  not  understand 
the  problem.  What  I  am  advocating  is  that  we 
must  learn  to  ask  those  who  know  how  to  produce 
things,  instead  of  asking  those  whose  profession  is 
to  fight  for  the  division  of  things  produced  by  nature 
or  by  other  human  beings. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  our  civilization  has  been  for 
a  long  time  disorganized  to  the  point  of  disease. 
Lately  through  the  whirl  of  changing  conditions,  due 
to  the  great  release  of  power  in  the  new-born  giant 
technology,  the  disorganization  has  become  acute. 


8o  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

The  sick  seldom  know  the  cure  for  themselves.  If 
the  cure  is  to  be  enduring,  we  have  to  go  to  the 
source,  and  this  can  be  done  only  by  men  familiar, 
not  only  with  effects  but  also  with  the  causes. 

Money  is  not  the  wealth  of  a  nation,  but  produc- 
tion is  wealth;  so  ordered  production  is  the  main 
object  for  humanity.  But  to  have  the  maximum  of 
production,  it  is  necessary  to  have  production  put 
on  a  sound  basis.  No  mere  preaching  of  brotherly 
love,  or  class  hatred,  will  produce  one  single  brick 
for  the  building  of  the  future  temple  of  human  vic- 
tory— the  temple  of  human  civilization.  Ordered 
production  demands  analysis  of  basic  facts. 

This  era  is  essentially  an  industrial  era.  To  pro- 
duce we  have  to  have :  (i)  raw  material  or  soil;  (2) 
instruments  for  production: — tools  and  machines; 
and  (3)  the  application  of  power. 

The  three  requirements  may  be  briefly  character- 
ized and  appraised  as  follows: 

( i )  Raw  material  and  soil  are  products  of  na- 
ture; humanity  simply  took  them  and  had  the  use 
of  them  for  nothing,  because  it  is  impossible  to  call 
a  prayer  of  thanksgiving  (if  any)  addressed  to  a 
"creator"  as  payment  to  gods  or  men.  But  raw 
material  and  soil,  in  the  conditions  in  which  nature 
produces  them,  are  of  very  little  immediate  benefit 
to  humanity,  because  untilled  soil  produces  very 
little  food  for  humans,  and  raw  material  such  as 


WHAT  is  MAN?  81 

wood,  coal,  oil,  iron,  copper,  etc.,  are  completely 
useless  to  humanity  until  after  human  work  is  ap- 
plied to  them.  It  is  necessary  to  cut  a  tree  for  the 
making  of  timber;  it  is  necessary  to  excavate  the 
minerals,  and  even  then,  only  by  applying  further 
human  work  is  it  possible  to  make  them  available 
for  any  human  use.  So,  it  is  obvious  that  even  raw 
materials  in  the  form  in  which  nature  has  produced 
them,  are  mostly  of  no  value  and  unavailable  for 
use,  unless  reproduced  through  the  process  of 
"human  creative  production."  Therefore,  we  may 
well  conclude  that  "raw  material"  must  be  divided 
into  two  very  distinct  classes:  (a)  raw  material  as 
produced  by  nature — nature's  free  gift — which  in 
its  original  form  and  place  has  practically  no  use- 
value;  and  (b)  raw  material  reproduced  by  man's 
mental  and  muscular  activities,  by  his  "time-binding" 
capacities.  Raw  materials  of  the  second  class  have 
an  enormous  use-value;  indeed  they  make  the  exist- 
ence of  humanity  possible. 

As    to    the    second   requirement    for   production, 
namely: 

(2)  Tools    and    machines,   it    is    obvious    that 
"'tools  and  machines"  are  made  of  raw  material  by 
human  work,  mental  and  muscular. 

And,  finally: 

(3)  The  application  of  power.     Different  sources 
of  natural  energy  and  power  are  known.     The  most 


82  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

important  available  source  of  energy  for  this  globe 
is  the  sun — the  heat  of  the  sun.  This  solar  heat  is 
the  origin  of  water  power,  of  wind  power,  and  of 
the  power  bound  up  in  coal,  of  the  chemistry,  growth 
and  transforming  agency  of  plants.* 

*  It  must  be  remembered  here  that  our  world  is,  first  of  all,  a 
dynamic  conglomeration  of  matter  and  energy,  which  to-day,  as 
well  as  in  the  first  period  of  primitive  organic  life,  took  and  takes 
different  known  and  unknown  forms.  One  of  these  forms  of 
energy  is  the  chemical  energy,  with  its  tendency  to  combinations 
and  exchanges.  Different  elements  act  in  different  ways.  The 
history  of  the  earth  and  its  life  is  simply  the  history  of  different 
chemical  periods,  with  different  transformations  of  energy.  A 
strange  fact  is  to  be  noticed  about  nitrogen.  Nitrogen  chemi- 
cally has  an  exceptional  inertness  toward  most  other  substances, 
but  once  it  is  a  component  part  of  a  substance,  almost  all  of  these 
combinations  are  a  very  powerful  source  of  energy,  and  all  of 
them  have  a  very  strong  effect  upon  organic  life.  Nitric  acid 
acts  through  oxidation,  the  substances  are  burned  up  by  the 
oxygen  given  off  from  the  acid.  Nitric  acid  occurs  in  nature, 
in  a  combination  called  nitrates.  From  the  soil  the  nitrates 
pass  into  the  plant.  Nitrite  of  amyl  acts  upon  our  organs  in  a 
most  violent  and  spasmodic  way.  Nitrous  oxide  is  the  so-called 
laughing  gas. 

Alkaloids  are  compounds  of  a  vegetable  origin,  generally  of 
complex  composition  and  capable  of  producing  marked  effects 
upon  animals.  They  all  contain  nitrogen.  Explosives  which 
are  a  chemical  means  of  storing  tremendous  amounts  of  energy, 
are  mostly  of  some  nitrogenous  compound.  Albumen  is  an 
organic  compound  of  great  importance  in  life,  which,  besides 
being  the  characteristic  ingredient  in  the  white  of  an  egg,  abounds 
in  the  serum  of  the  blood  and  forms  an  important  part  of  the 
muscles  and  brain.  Albuminoids  play  the  most  vital  role  in 
plant  life  and  are  an  extensive  class  of  organic  bodies  found  in 
plants  and  animals,  as  they  are  found  to  form  the  chief  constitu- 
ents of  blood,  nerves.  All  albuminoids  found  in  animals  are 
produced  by  the  processes  fulfilled  in  plants.  Their  exact 
constitution  is  not  known;  analysis  shows  that  they  contain 
approximately:  Carbon  50-55%,  Hydrogen  6.9-7.5%,  Nitrogen 
I5-I9%>  Oxygen  20-24%,  Sulphur  0.3-2.0%.  Venous  blood 


WHAT  is  MAN?  $3 

All  foods  which  the  animals  as  well  as  the  humans 
use  are,  already,  the  result  of  the  solar  energy  trans- 
formed into  what  may  be  called  chemical  energy. 
Transformation  of  energies  is  building  up  of  life. 

It  is  to  be  clearly  seen  that  the  only  source  of 
energy  which  can  be  directly  appropriated  and  used 
by  man  or  animal  is  vegetable  food  found  in  the 
wilderness;  no  other  sources  of  power  are  avail- 
contains  in  100  volumes:  Nitrogen,  13;  Carbonic  Acid,  71.6; 
Oxygen,  15.3.  Arterial  blood:  Nitrogen,  14.5;  Carbonic  Acid, 
62.3;  Oxygen,  23.2. 

"Nitrogenous  compounds  in  general,  are  extremely  prone  to 
decomposition;  their  decomposition  often  involving  a  sudden 
and  great  evolution  of  force.  We  see  that  substances  classed 
as  ferments.  .  .  .  are  all  nitrogenous  .  .  .  and  we  see  that 
even  in  organisms  and  parts  of  organisms  where  the  activities 
are  least,  such  changes  as  do  take  place  are  initiated  by  a  sub- 
stance containing  nitrogen.  .  .  .  We  see  that  organic  matter  is 
so  constituted  that  small  incidental  actions  are  capable  of 
initiating  great  reaction  and  liberating  large  quantities  of  power. 
.  .  .  The  seed  of  a  plant  contains  nitrogenous  substances  in  a 
far  higher  ratio  than  the  rest  of  the  plant;  and  the  seed  differs 
from  the  rest  of  the  plant  in  its  ability  to  initiate  .  .  .  extensive 
vital  changes — the  changes  constituting  germination.  Simi- 
larly in  the  bodies  of  animals  ...  in  every  living  vegetal  cell 
there  is  a  certain  part  that  contains  nitrogen.  This  part  initiates 
these  changes  which  constitute  the  development  of  the  cell.  .  .  . 
It  is  a  curious  and  significant  fact  that,  in  technology,  we  not 
only  utilize  the  same  principle  of  initiating  extensive  changes 
among  comparatively  stable  compounds  by  the  help  of  com- 
pounds much  less  stable,  but  we  employ  for  the  purpose  com- 
pounds of  the  same  general  class.  Our  modern  method  of 
firing  a  gun  is  to  place  in  close  proximity  with  the  gunpowder 
which  we  choose  to  decompose  or  explode,  a  small  portion  of 
fulminating  powder,  which  is  decomposed  or  exploded  with 
extreme  facility,  and  which  on  decomposing,  communicates 
the  consequent  molecular  disturbances  to  the  less  easily  decom- 
posed gunpowder.  When  we  ask  what  this  fulminating  powder 
is  composed  of,  we  find  that  it  is  a  nitrogenous  salt." — Spencer. 


84  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

able  for  direct  use;  they  have  first  to  be  mastered 
and  directed  by  human  brain.  The  same  is  true  in 
regard  to  the  getting  of  animal  food,  the  creation 
of  a  water-  or  windmill,  or  a  steam  engine,  or  the 
art  of  using  a  team  of  horses,  or  a  bushel  of  wheat; 
these  are  not  available  except  by  the  use  of  the  human 
"time-binding"  power. 

This  short  survey  of  facts,  known  to  everybody, 
brings  us  to  the  conclusion  that  all  problems  of  pro- 
duction come  ultimately  to  the  analysis  of 

1 i )  Natural  resources  of  raw  material  and  nat- 
ural energy,  freely  supplied  by  nature,  which,  as  we 
have  seen,  in  the  form  as  produced  by  nature  alone, 
have  very  little  or  no  value  for  humanity; 

(2)  The  activity  of  the  human  brain    (because 
human  muscles  are  always  directed    by  the  brain) 
which  gives  value  to  the  otherwise  useless  raw  ma- 
terials and  energies. 

Hence,  to  understand  the  processes  of  production, 
it  is  essential  to  realize  that  humanity  is  able  to  sur- 
vive only  by  virtue  of  the  capacity  of  humans  to  ex- 
ploit natural  resources — to  convert  the  products  of 
nature  into  forms  available  for  human  needs.  If 
humanity  had  only  the  capacity  of  apes,  depending 
exclusively  on  wild  fruits  and  the  like,  they  would  be 
confined  to  those  comparatively  small  regions  of  the 
globe  where  the  climate  and  the  fertility  of  the  soil 
are  specially  favorable.  But  in  the  case  supposed, 


WHAT  is  MAN?  85 

humans  would  not  be  humans,  they  would  not  be 
time-binders — they  would  be  animals — mere  space- 
binders. 

There  are  other  facts  which  must  be  kept  con- 
stantly in  mind.  One  of  them  is  that,  in  the  world 
in  which  we  live,  there  are  natural  laws  of  inorganic 
as  well  as  organic  phenomena.  Another  of  the  facts 
is,  as  before  said,  that  the  human  class  of  life  has  the 
peculiar  capacity  of  establishing  the  social  laws  and 
customs  which  regulate  and  influence  its  destinies, 
which  help  or  hinder  the  processes  of  production 
upon  which  the  lives  and  happiness  of  mankind 
essentially  and  fundamentally  depend. 

It  must  not  be  lost  sight  of  in  this  connection  that 
the  human  class  of  life  is  a  part  and  a  product  of 
nature,  and  that,  therefore,  there  must  be  funda- 
mental laws  which  are  natural  for  this  class  of  life. 
A  stone  obeys  the  natural  laws  of  stones;  a  liquid 
conforms  to  the  natural  law  of  liquids;  a  plant,  to 
the  natural  laws  of  plants;  an  animal,  to  the  natural 
laws  of  animals ;  it  follows  inevitably  that  there  must 
be  natural  laws  for  humans. 

But  here  the  problem  becomes  more  complicated; 
for  the  stone,  the  plant  and  the  animal  do  not  possess 
the  intellectual  power  to  create  and  initiate  and  so 
must  blindly  obey  the  laws  that  are  natural  for  them; 
they  are  not  free  to  determine  their  own  destinies. 
Not  so  with  man;  man  has  the  capacity  and  he 


86  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

can,  through  ignorance  or  neglect  or  mal-intent, 
deviate  from,  or  misinterpret,  the  natural  laws  for 
the  human  class  of  life.  Just  therein  lies  the  secret 
and  the  source  of  human  chaos  and  woe — a  fact  of 
such  tremendous  importance  that  it  cannot  be  over- 
emphasized and  it  seems  impossible  to  evade  it 
longer.  To  discover  the  nature  of  Man  and  the 
laws  of  that  nature,  marks  the  summit  of  human 
enterprises.  For  to  solve  this  problem  is  to  open  the 
way  to  everything  which  can  be  of  importance  to 
humanity — to  human  welfare  and  happiness. 

The  great  problem  has  been  felt  as  a  powerful 
impulse  throughout  the  ages  of  human  striving,  for 
in  all  times  it  has  been  evident  to  thinkers  that  upon 
the  right  solution  of  the  problem  must  forever  de- 
pend the  welfare  of  mankind.  Many  "solutions" 
have  been  offered;  and,  though  they  have  differed 
widely,  they  agree  in  one  respect — they  have  had  a 
common  fate — the  fate  of  being  false.  What  has 
been  the  trouble?  The  trouble  has  been,  in  every 
instance,  a  radical  misconception  of  what  a  human 
being  really  is.  The  problem  is  to  discover  the  nat- 
ural laws  of  the  human  class  of  life.  All  the  "solu- 
tions" offered  in  the  course  of  history  and  those 
which  are  current  to-day  are  of  two  and  only  two 
kinds — zoological  and  mythological.  The  zoologi- 
cal solutions  are  those  which  grow  out  of  the  false 
conception  according  to  which  human  beings  are  ani- 


WHAT  is  MAN?  87 

mals;  if  humans  are  animals,  the  laws  of  human 
nature  are  the  laws  of  animal  nature;  and  so  the 
social  "sciences"  of  ethics,  law,  politics,  economics, 
government  become  nothing  but  branches  of 
zoology;  as  sciences,  they  are  the  studies  of  animal 
life ;  as  arts,  they  are  the  arts  of  managing  and  con- 
trolling animals ;  according  to  this  zoological  philos- 
ophy, human  wisdom  about  human  beings  is  animal 
wisdom  about  animals. 

The  mythological  "solutions"  are  those  which 
start  with  the  monstrous  conception  according  to 
which  human  beings  have  no  proper  place  in  nature 
but  are  mixtures  of  natural  and  supernatural — 
unions  or  combinations  of  animality  and  divinity. 
Such  "solutions"  contain  no  conception  of  natural 
law;  scientifically  judged,  they  are  mythological  ab- 
surdities— muddle-headed  chattering  of  crude  and 
irresponsible  metaphysics — well-meaning  no  doubt, 
but  silly,  and  deadly  in  their  effects  upon  the  interests 
of  mankind,  vitiating  ethics,  law,  economics,  politics 
and  government. 

Such  have  been  and  still  are  the  regnant  philoso- 
phies of  human  nature.  What  is  the  remedy?  How 
are  the  laws  of  human  nature  to  be  discovered? 

It  is  evident  that  the  enterprise,  like  all  other 
scientific  enterprises,  must  be  based  upon  and  guided 
by  realities.  It  is  essential  to  realize  that  the  great, 
central,  dominant,  all-embracing  reality  is  the  reality 


88  MANHOOD  or  HUMANITY 

of  human  nature.  If  we  misconceive  this  funda- 
mental matter,  the  enterprise  must  fail;  that  is  both 
logically  clear  and  clear  in  the  sad  light  of  history; 
but  if  we  conceive  it  aright,  we  may  confidently  expect 
the  enterprise  to  prosper.  That  is  why,  in  the  chap- 
ter on  "The  Classes  of  Life,"  I  have  laid  so  much 
stress  on  the  absolute  necessity  of  conceiving  Man 
as  being  what  he  really  is,  and  not  something  else. 
And  we  have  discovered  what  man  is :  we  have  dis- 
covered that  man  is  characterized  by  the  capacity 
or  power  to  bind  time,  and  so  we  have  defined 
humanity  as  the  time-binding  class  of  life.  That  con- 
cept is  fundamental.  It  contains  the  germ  of  the 
science  and  art  of  Human  Engineering.  The  prob- 
lem of  discovering  and  applying  the  "laws  of  human 
nature"  is  the  problem  of  discovering  and  applying 
to  the  conduct  of  life  the  laws  of  time-binding — of 
time-binding  activity — of  time-binding  energy.  This 
fact  must  be  firmly  seized  and  kept  steadily  in  mind. 
Energy,  we  have  noted,  is  the  capacity  to  do  work. 
In  human  economy  work  may  be  ( I )  useful  or  (2) 
neutral  or  (3)  harmful.  These  words  have  no  sig- 
nificance except  in  human  economy.  The  energy  of 
the  human  intellect  is  a  time-binding  energy,  for  it 
is  able  to  direct,  to  use,  to  transform  other  energies. 
This  time-binding  energy  is  of  higher  rank — of 
higher  dimensionality — than  the  other  natural 
energies  which  it  directs,  controls,  uses,  and  trans- 


WHAT  is  MAN?  89 

forms.  This  higher  energy — which  is  commonly 
called  the  mental  or  spiritual  power  of  man — is  time- 
binding  because  it  makes  past  achievements  live  in 
the  present  and  present  activities  in  time-to-come.  It 
is  an  energy  that  initiates;  it  is  an  energy  that  cre- 
ates; it  is  an  energy  that  can  understand  the  past  and 
foretell  the  future — it  is  both  historian  and  prophet; 
it  is  an  energy  that  loads  abstract  time — the  vehicle 
of  events — with  an  ever-increasing  burden  of  intel- 
lectual achievements,  of  spiritual  wealth,  destined  for 
the  civilization  of  posterity.  And  what  is  the  natural 
law  of  the  increase?  What  is  the  natural  law  of 
human  advancements  in  all  great  matters  of  human 
concern? 

The  question  is  of  utmost  importance  both  theo- 
retically and  practically,  for  the  law — whatever  it  be 
• — is  a  natural  law — a  law  of  human  nature — a  law 
of  the  time-binding  energy  of  man.  What  is  the 
law?  We  have  already  noted  the  law  of  arithmeti- 
cal progression  and  the  law  of  geometric  progres- 
sion; we  have  seen  the  immense  difference  between 
them;  and  we  have  seen  that  the  natural  law  of 
human  progress  in  each  and  every  cardinal  matter 
is  a  law  like  that  of  a  rapidly  increasing  geometric 
progression.  In  other  words,  the  natural  law  of 
human  progress — the  natural  law  of  amelioration  in 
human  affairs — the  fundamental  law  of  human 
nature — the  basic  law  of  the  time-binding  energy 


90  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

peculiar  to  man — is  a  Logarithmic  law — a  law  of 
logarithmic  increase.  I  beg  the  reader  not  to  let 
the  term  bewilder  him  but  to  make  it  his  own.  It  is 
easy  to  understand;  and  its  significance  is  mighty  and 
everlasting.  Even  its  mathematical  formulation  can 
be  understood  by  boys  and  girls.  Let  us  see  how  the 
formulation  looks. 

Suppose  PR  to  denote  the  amount  of  progress 
made  in  some  important  field  by  a  given  genera- 
tion— which  we  may  call  the  "first"  generation; 
where  R  denotes  the  common  ratio — the  ratio  of 
improvement — that  is,  the  number  by  which  the 
progress  of  one  generation  must  be  multiplied  to 
give  the  amount  of  progress  made  by  the  next  gen- 
eration; then  the  amount  of  progress  made  by  the 
second  generation  will  be  PR2;  that  made  by  the 
third  generation  will  be  PR3;  and  so  on;  now  denote 
by  T  the  number  of  generations,  counting  the  first 
one  and  all  that  follow  in  endless  succession.  Then 
the  following  series  will  show  the  law  of  human 
progress  in  the  chosen  field: 

PR,  PR2,  PR3,  PR*,  PR*,  .  .  . ,  PRT,  PRT+1,  .  . .  ; 

notice  how  it  goes;  the  first  generation  ends  with  PR, 
the  second  generation  starts  with  PR,  adds  PR2,  and 
ends  with  PR-\-PR2;  the  third  generation  starts 
with  PR+PR2,  adds  PR3  and  ends  with  PR  + 
PR2+PR3;  and  so  on  and  on;  the  gain  made  in 


WHAT  is  MAN?  gi 

the  Ttk  generation  is  PRT',   the  total  gain  made  in 
T  generations  is 


.  .  .  +PRT', 

this  total  gain  is  given  by  the  formula, 

j^ 

Total  gain  in  T  generations  =-5  -  (PRT—P). 

J\  —  i 

If  we  take  R  to  be  2  (which  is  a  very  small  ratio, 
requiring  the  progress  of  each  generation  to  be 
merely  double  that  of  the  preceding  one)  and  if  we 
take  T  to  be  (say)  10,  then  we  see  that  the  progress 
made  by  the  single  loth  generation  is  PX210,  which 
is  1024  times  the  progress  made  in  the  "  first  " 
generation;  and  we  readily  compute  that  the  total 
gain  in  10  generations  is  2046  times  the  progress 
made  in  the  "  first  "generation.  Moreover,  to  gain 
a  just  sense  of  the  impressiveness  of  this  law,  the 
reader  must  reflect  upon  the  fact  that  it  operates, 
not  merely  on  one  field,  but  in  all  fields  of  human 
interest.  "  Operates  in  all  fields  "  I  have  just  now 
said;  as  a  matter  of  fact,  as  before  pointed  out,  it  does 
not  so  operate  now  in  all  fields  nor  has  it  ever  done 
so.  My  point  is  that  it  will  so  operate  when  we 
once  acquire  sense  enough  to  let  it  do  so.  That 
sense  we  shall  have  when  and  only  when  we  dis- 
cover that  by  nature  we  are  time-binders  and  that 
the  effectiveness  of  our  time-binding  capacity  is  not 


92  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

only  a  function  of  time  but  is,  as  I  have  explained, 
a  logarithmic  or  exponential  function  of  time — a 
function  in  which  time  (T)  enters  as  an  exponent, 
as  in  the  expression  PRT,  so  that  we  humans  are, 
unlike  animals,  naturally  qualified  not  only  to 
progress,  but  to  progress  more  and  more  rapidly,  with 
an  always  accelerating  acceleration,  as  the  generations 
pass. 

This  great  fact  is  to  be  at  once  the  basis,  the 
regulator  and  guide  in  the  science  and  art  of  Human 
Engineering.  Whatever  squares  with  that  law  of 
time-binding  human  energy,  is  right  and  makes  for 
human  weal;  whatever  contravenes  it,  is  wrong  and 
makes  for  human  woe. 

And  so  I  repeat  that  the  world  will  have  uninter- 
rupted, peaceful  progress  when  and  only  when  the 
so-called  social  "sciences" — the  life-regulating  "sci- 
ences" of  ethics,  law,  philosophy,  economics,  religion, 
politics,  and  government — are  technologized;  when 
and  only  when  they  are  made  genuinely  scientific  in 
spirit  and, method;  for  then  and  only  then  will  they 
advance,  like  the  natural,  mathematical  and  techno- 
logical sciences,  in  conformity  to  the  fundamental 
exponential  law  of  the  time-binding  nature  of  man; 
then  and  then  only,  by  the  equal  pace  of  progress  in 
all  cardinal  matters,  the  equilibrium  of  social  insti- 
tutions will  remain  stable  and  social  cataclysms  cease. 


CHAPTER  Vl 

WEALTH 

T  BEG  the  reader  to  allow  me  to  begin  this  chap- 
ter with  a  word  of  warning.  The  reader  is  aware 
that  Criticism — by  which  I  mean  Thought — may  be 
any  one  of  three  kinds:  it  may  be  purely  destructive; 
it  may  be  purely  constructive;  or  it  may  be  both 
destructive  and  constructive  at  the  same  time. 
Purely  destructive  criticism  is  sometimes  highly  use- 
ful. If  an  old  idea  or  a  system  of  old  ideas  be  false 
and  therefore  harmful,  it  is  a  genuine  service  to 
attack  it  and  destroy  it  even  if  nothing  be  offered 
to  take  its  place,  just  as  it  is  good  to  destroy  a  rattle- 
snake lurking  by  a  human  pathway,  even  if  one  does 
not  offer  a  substitute  for  the  snake.  But,  however 
useful  destructive  criticism  may  be,  it  is  not  an  easy 
service  to  render;  for  old  ideas,  however  false  and 
harmful,  are  protected  alike  by  habit  and  by  the 
inborn  conservatism  of  many  minds.  Now,  habit 
indeed  is  exceedingly  useful — even  indispensable  to 
the  effective  conduct  of  life — for  it  enables  us  to  do 
many  useful  things  automatically  and  therefore 
easily,  without  conscious  thinking,  and  thus  to  save 
our  mental  energy  for  other  work;  but  for  the  same 

93 


94  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

reason,  habit  is  often  very  harmful;  it  makes  us  pro- 
tect false  ideas  automatically,  and  so  when  the  de- 
structive critic  endeavors  to  destroy  such  ideas  by 
reasoning  with  us,  he  finds  that  he  is  trying  to  reason 
with  automats — with  machines.  Such  is  the  chief 
difficulty  encountered  by  destructive  criticism.  On 
the  other  hand,  purely  constructive  criticism — purely 
constructive  thought — consists  in  introducing  new 
ideas  of  a  kind  that  do  not  clash,  or  do  not  seem  to 
clash,  with  old  ones.  Is  such  criticism  or  thought 
easy?  Far  from  it.  It  has  difficulties  of  its  own. 
These  are  of  two  varieties:  the  difficulty  of  showing 
people  who  are  content  with  their  present  stock  of 
old  ideas  that  the  new  ones  are  interesting  or  im- 
portant; and  the  great  difficulty  of  making  new  ideas 
clear  and  intelligible,  for  the  art  of  being  clear  and 
perfectly  intelligible  is  very,  very  hard  to  acquire  and 
to  practise.  The  third  kind  of  criticism — the  third 
kind  of  thought — the  kind  that  is  at  once  both  de- 
structive and  constructive — has  a  double  aim — that 
of  destroying  old  ideas  that  are  false  and  that  of 
replacing  them  with  new  ideas  that  are  true;  and  so 
the  third  kind  of  criticism  or  thought  is  the  most  dif- 
ficult of  all,  for  it  has  to  overcome  both  the  difficulty 
of  destructive  criticism  and  that  of  constructive 
thought. 

The  reader,  therefore,  if  he  will  be  good  enough 
to  reflect  a  little  upon  the  matter,  can  not  fail  to  ap- 


WEALTH  95 

predate  the  tremendous  difficulties  which  beset  the 
writing  of  this  little  book,  for  he  must  perceive,  not 
only  that  the  work  belongs  to  the  third  kind  of 
critical  thought,  but — what  is  much  more — the  errors 
it  aims  to  destroy  are  fundamental,  world-wide  and 
old,  while  the  true  ideas  it  seeks  to  substitute  for 
them  are  fundamental  and  new.  This  great  diffi* 
culty,  felt  at  every  stage  of  this  writing,  is,  for  a 
reason  to  be  presently  explained,  greatly  enhanced 
and  felt  with  especial  keenness  in  the  present  chap- 
ter. I  therefore  beg  the  reader  to  give  me  here 
very  special  cooperation — the  cooperation  of  open- 
mindedness,  candor  and  critical  attention.  It  is  essen- 
tial to  keep  in  mind  the  nature  of  our  enterprise  as  a 
whole,  which  is  that  of  pointing  the  way  to  the  science 
and  art  of  Human  Engineering  and  laying  the  foun- 
dations thereof;  we  have  seen  Human  Engineering, 
when  developed,  is  to  be  the  science  and  art  of  so  di- 
recting human  energies  and  capacities  as  to  make 
them  contribute  most  effectively  to  the  advancement 
of  human  welfare ;  we  have  seen  that  this  science  and 
art  must  have  its  basis  in  a  true  conception  of  human 
nature — a  just  conception  of  what  Man  really  is  and 
of  his  natural  place  in  the  complex  of  the  world; 
we  have  seen  that  the  ages-old  and  still  current  con- 
ceptions of  man — zoological  and  mythological  con- 
ceptions, according  to  which  human  beings  are  either 
animals  or  else  hybrids  of  animals  and  gods — are 


96  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

mainly  responsible  for  the  dismal  things  in  human 
history;  we  have  seen  that  man,  far  from  being  an 
animal  or  a  compound  of  natural  and  supernatural, 
is  a  perfectly  natural  being  characterized  by  a  certain 
capacity  or  power — the  capacity  or  power  to  bind 
time ;  we  have  seen  that  humanity  is,  therefore,  to  be 
rightly  conceived  and  scientifically  defined  as  the 
time-binding  class  of  life;  we  have  seen  that,  there- 
fore, the  laws  of  time-binding  energies  and  time- 
binding  phenomena  are  the  laws  of  human  nature; 
we  have  seen  that  this  conception  of  man — which 
must  be  the  basic  concept,  the  fundamental  principle 
and  the  perpetual  guide  and  regulator  of  Human 
Engineering — is  bound  to  work  a  profound  transfor- 
mation in  all  our  views  on  human  affairs  and,  in  par- 
ticular, must  radically  alter  the  so-called  social 
"sciences" — the  life-regulating  "sciences"  of  ethics, 
sociology,  economics,  politics  and  government — ad- 
vancing them  from  their  present  estate  of  pseudo 
sciences  to  the  level  of  genuine  sciences  and  tech- 
nologizing  them  for  the  effective  service  of  mankind. 
I  call  them  "life-regulating,"  not  because  they  play 
a  more  important  part  in  human  affairs  than  do  the 
genuine  sciences  of  mathematics,  physics,  chemistry, 
astronomy  and  biology,  for  they  are  not  more  im- 
portant than  these,  but  because  they  are,  so  to  say, 
closer,  more  immediate  and  more  obvious  in  their 
influence  and  effects.  These  life-regulating  sciences 


WEALTH  97 

are,  of  coiwse,  not  independent;  they  depend  ulti- 
mately upon  the  genuine  sciences  for  much  of  their 
power  and  ought  to  go  to  them  for  light  and  guid- 
ance; but  what  I  mean  here  by  saying  they  are  not 
independent  is  that  they  are  dependent  upon  each 
other,  interpenetrating  and  interlocking  in  innumer- 
able ways.  To  show  in  detail  how  the  so-called 
sciences  will  have  to  be  transformed  to  make  them 
accord  with  the  right  conception  of  man  and  qualify 
them  for  their  proper  business  will  eventually  require 
a  large  volume  or  indeed  volumes. 

In  this  introductory  work  I  cannot  deal  fully  with 
one  of  those  "sciences"  nor  in  suitable  outline  with 
each  of  them  separately.  I  must  be  content  here  to 
deal,  very  briefly,  with  one  of  them  by  way  of  illus- 
tration and  suggestion.  Which  one  shall  it  be  ? 

Now  among  these  life-regulating  "sciences"  there 
is  one  specially  marked  by  the  importance  of  its  sub- 
ject, by  its  central  relation  to  the  others  and  by  its 
prominence  in  the  public  mind.  I  mean  Economics — 
the  "dismal  science"  of  Political  Economy.  For  that 
reason  I  have  chosen  to  deal  with  economics.  In  the 
present  chapter  I  shall  discuss  three  of  its  principal 
terms — Wealth,  Capital  and  Money — with  a  view 
to  showing  that  the  current  meanings  and  interpre- 
tations of  these  familiar  terms  must  be  very  greatly 
deepened,  enlarged  and  elevated  if  they  are  to  accord 
with  facts  and  laws  of  human  nature  and  if  the  so- 


98  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

called  "science"  which  employs  them  is  to  become 
a  genuine  science  properly  qualified  to  be  a  branch 
of  Human  Engineering.  It  is  to  be  shown  that  the 
meanings  currently  attached  by  political  economists 
and  others  to  the  terms  in  question  belong  to  what 
I  have  called  the  period  of  humanity's  childhood; 
and  it  is  to  be  shown  that  the  new  meanings  which 
the  terms  must  receive  belong  to  the  period  of 
humanity's  manhood.  It  will  be  seen  that  the  new 
meanings  differ  so  radically  from  the  old  ones  as 
to  make  it  desirable  for  the  sake  of  clarity  to  give 
the  new  meanings  new  names.  But  this,  however 
scientifically  desirable,  is  impracticable  because  the 
old  terms — wealth,  capital,  money — are  so  deeply 
imbedded  in  the  speech  of  the  world.  And  here 
comes  into  view  the  very  special  difficulty  alluded  to 
above  and  which  led  me  to  request  the  reader's 
special  cooperation  in  this  chapter.  The  difficulty 
is  not  merely  that  of  destroying  old  ideas  that  are 
false;  it  is  not  merely  that  of  replacing  them  with 
true  ideas  that  are  new;  it  is  that  of  causing  people 
habitually  to  associate  meanings  that  are  new  and 
true  with  terms  associated  so  long,  so  universally,  so 
uniformly  with  meanings  that  are  false. 

The  secret  of  philosophy,  said  Leibnitz,  is  to  treat 
familiar  things  as  unfamiliar.  By  the  secret  of 
"philosophy"  Leibnitz  meant  the  secret  of  what  we 
call  science.  Let  us  apply  this  wholesome  maxim  in 


WEALTH  99 

our  present  study;  let  us,  in  so  far  as  we  can,  regard 
the  familiar  terms — wealth,  capital  and  money — as 
unfamiliar;  let  us  deal  with  them  afresh;  let  us 
examine  openmindedly  the  facts — the  phenomena — 
to  which  the  terms  relate  and  ascertain  scientifically 
the  significance  the  terms  must  have  in  a  genuine 
science  of  human  economy.  Examine  "the  facts"  I 
say — examine  "the  phenomena" — for  bending  facts 
to  theories  is  a  vital  danger,  while  bending  theories 
to  facts  is  essential  to  science  and  the  peaceful  prog- 
ress of  society. 

Human  beings  have  always  had  some  sense  of 
values — some  perception  or  cognition  of  values.  In 
order  to  express  or  measure  values,  it  was  necessary 
to  introduce  units  of  measure,  or  units  of  exchange. 
People  began  to  measure  values  by  means  of  agri- 
cultural and  other  products,  such  as  cattle,  for  ex- 
ample. The  Latin  word  for  cattle  was  pecus,  and 
the  word  pecunia,  which  came  to  signify  money, 
accounts  for  the  meaning  of  our  familiar  word  pecu- 
niary. The  earliest  units  for  measuring  became  un- 
suited  to  the  increasing  needs  of  growing  trade, 
"business,"  or  traffic.  Finally  a  unit  called  money 
was  adopted  in  which  the  base  was  the  value  of  some 
weight  of  gold.  Thus  we  see  that  money  came  to 
mean  simply  the  accepted  unit  for  measuring,  repre- 
senting and  expressing  values  of  and  in  wealth. 

But  what  is  wealth?     I  have  said  that  the  old 


ioo  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

conceptions  of  wealth,  capital  and  money — the  con- 
ceptions that  are  still  current  throughout  the  world 
— belong  to  the  period  of  humanity's  childhood — 
they  are  childish  conceptions.  I  have  said  that  they 
must  be  replaced  by  scientific  conceptions — by  con- 
ceptions fit  for  humanity's  manhood.  The  change 
that  must  be  made  in  our  conceptions  of  the  great 
terms  is  tremendous.  It  is  necessary  to  analyse  the 
current  conceptions  of  wealth,  capital,  and  money — 
the  childish  conceptions  of  them — in  order  to  reveal 
their  falseness,  stupidity  and  folly.  To  do  this  we 
must  enter  the  field  of  Political  Economy — a  field 
beset  with  peculiar  difficulties  and  dangers.  All  the 
Furies  of  private  interests  are  involved.  One  gains 
the  impression  that  there  is  little  or  no  real  desire 
to  gain  a  true  conception — a  scientific  conception — 
of  wealth.  Everybody  seems  to  prefer  an  emotional 
definition — a  definition  that  suits  his  personal  love 
of  wealth  or  his  hatred  of  it.  Many  definitions  of 
wealth,  capital  and  money  are  to  be  found  in  modern 
books  of  political  economy — definitions  and  books 
belonging  to  humanity's  childhood.  For  the  purpose 
of  this  writing  they  all  of  them  look  alike — they 
sufficiently  agree — they  are  all  of  them  childish. 
Mill,  for  example,  tells  us  that  wealth  consists  of 
"useful  or  agreeable  things  which  possess  exchange- 
able value."  Of  capital  one  of  the  simplest  defi- 
nitions is  this: 


WEALTH  101 

"Capital  is  that  part  of  wealth  which  is  devoted  to 
obtaining  further  wealth."  (Alfred  Marshall,  Economics  of 
Industry.) 

Walker  (in  his  Money,  Trade  and  Industry) 
defines  money  as  follows: 

"Money  is  that  which  passes  freely  from  hand  to  hand 
throughout  the  community  in  final  discharge  of  debts  and 
full  payment  for  commodities,  being  accepted  equally  with- 
out reference  to  the  character  or  credit  of  the  person  who 
offers  it,  and  without  the  intention  of  the  person  who  receives 
it  to  consume  it,  or  to  enjoy  it,  or  apply  it  to  any  other 
use  than,  in  turn,  to  tender  it  to  others  in  discharge  of  debts 
or  full  payment  for  commodities." 

Political  economy  has  many  different  schools  of 
thought  and  methods  of  classification.  Its  reason- 
ings are  mainly  speculative,  metaphysical,  and  legal- 
istic; its  ethics  is  zoological  ethics,  based  on  the 
zoological  conception  of  man  as  an  animal.  The 
elements  of  natural  logic  and  natural  ethics  are 
absent.  The  sophisticated  ideas  about  the  subject 
of  political  economy,  bluntly  do  not  correspond  to 
facts.  Our  primitive  forefather  in  the  jungle  would 
have  died  from  hunger,  cold,  heat,  blood  poisoning 
or  the  attacks  of  wild  animals,  if  he  had  not  used 
his  brain  and  muscles  to  take  some  stone  or  a  piece 
of  wood  to  knock  down  fruit  from  trees,  to  kill  an 
animal,  so  as  to  use  his  hide  for  clothes  and  his  meat 
for  food,  or  to  break  wood  and  trees  for  a  shelter 
and  to  make  some  weapons  for  defense  and  hunting. 


IO2  MANHOOD  or  HUMANITY 

"In  the  first  stone  which  he  (the  savage)  flings  at  the 
wild  animal  he  pursues,  in  the  first  stick  that  he  seizes  to 
strike  down  the  fruit  which  hangs  above  his  reach,  we  see 
the  appropriation  of  one  article  for  the  purpose  of  aiding 
in  the  acquisition  of  another  and  thus  we  discover  the  origin 
of  capital."  (R.  Torrens,  An  Essay  on  the  Production  of 
Wealth.) 

Our  primitive  forefather's  first  acquaintance  with 
fire  was  probably  through  lightning;  he  discovered, 
probably  by  chance,  the  possibility  of  making  fire  by 
rubbing  together  two  pieces  of  wood  and  by  striking 
together  two  pieces  of  stone;  he  established  one  of 
the  first  facts  in  technology;  he  felt  the  warm  effect 
of  fire  and  also  the  good  effect  of  broiling  his  food 
by  finding  some  roasted  animals  in  a  fire.  Thus 
nature  revealed  to  him  one  of  its  great  gifts,  the 
stored-up  energy  of  the  sun  in  vegetation  and  its 
primitive  beneficial  use.  He  was  already  a  time- 
binding  being;  evolution  had  brought  him  to  that 
level.  Being  a  product  of  nature,  he  was  reflecting 
those  natural  laws  that  belong  to  his  class  of  life; 
he  had  ceased  to  be  static — he  had  become  dynamic 
— progressiveness  had  got  into  his  blood — he  was 
above  the  estate  of  animals. 

We  also  observe  that  primitive  man  produced 
commodities,  acquired  experiences,  made  observa- 
tions, and  that  some  of  the  produced  commodities 
had  a  use-value  for  other  people  and  remained  good 
for  use,  even  after  his  death. 


WEALTH  103 

The  produced  commodities  were  composed  of  raw 
material,  freely  supplied  by  nature,  combined  with 
some  mental  work  which  gave  him  the  conception  of 
how  to  make  and  to  use  the  object,  and  some  work  on 
his  part  which  finally  shaped  the  thing;  all  of  this 
mental  and  manual  work  consumed  an  amount  of 
time.  It  is  obvious  that  all  of  these  elements  are 
indispensable  to  produce  anything  of  any  value,  or  of 
any  use-value.  His  child  not  only  directly  received 
some  of  the  use-values  produced  by  him,  but  was 
initiated  into  all  of  his  experiences  and  observations. 
(As  we  know,  power,  as  defined  in  mechanics, 
means  the  ratio  of  work  done  to  the  time  used  in 
doing  it. ) 

All  those  things  are  time-binding  phenomena  pro- 
duced by  the  time-binding  capacity  of  man;  but  man 
has  not  known  that  this  capacity  was  his  defining 
mark.  We  must  notice  the  strange  fact  that,  from 
the  engineering  point  of  view,  humanity,  though  very 
developed  in  some  ways,  is  childishly  undeveloped 
in  others.  Humanity  has  some  conceptions  about 
dimensions  and  talks  of  the  world  in  which  we  live 
as  having  three  dimensions;  yet  even  in  its  wildest 
imagination  it  can  not  picture  tangibly  a  fourth 
dimension ;  nay,  humanity  has  not  learned  to  grasp 
the  real  meanings  of  things  that  are  basic  or  funda- 
mental. All  of  our  conceptions  are  relative  and 
comparative;  all  of  them  are  based  upon  matters 


104  MANHOOD  or  HUMANITY 

which  we  do  not  yet  understand;  for  example,  we 
talk  of  time,  space,  electricity,  gravity,  and  so  on, 
but  no  one  has  been  able  to  define  them  in  terms  of 
the  data  of  sensation;  nevertheless — and  it  is  a  fact 
of  the  greatest  importance — we  learn  how  to  use 
many  things  which  we  do  not  fully  understand  and 
are  not  yet  able  to  define. 

In  political  economy  the  meagreness  of  our  under- 
standing is  especially  remarkable;  we  have  not  yet 
grasped  the  obvious  fact — a  fact  of  immeasurable 
import  for  all  of  the  social  sciences — that  with  little 
exception  the  wealth  and  capital  possessed  by  a  given 
generation  are  not  produced  by  its  own  toil  but  are 
the  inherited  fruit  of  dead  men's  toil — a  free  gift 
of  the  past.  We  have  yet  to  learn  and  apply  the 
lesson  that  not  only  our  material  wealth  and  capital 
but  our  science  and  art  and  learning  and  wisdom — 
all  that  goes  to  constitute  our  civilization — were 
produced,  not  by  our  own  labor,  but  by  the  time- 
binding  energies  of  past  generations. 

Primitive  man  used  natural  laws  without  knowing 
them  or  understanding  them,  but  he  was  able  to  cause 
nature  to  express  itself,  by  finding  a  way  to  release 
nature's  stored  up  energy.  Through  the  work  of  his 
brain  and  its  direction  in  the  use  of  his  muscles,  he 
found  that  some  of  his  appliances  were  not  good; 
he  made  better  ones,  and  thus  slowly  at  first,  the 
progress  of  humanity  went  on.  I  will  not  enlarge 


WEALTH  105 

upon  the  history  of  the  evolution  of  civilization 
because  it  is  told  in  many  books. 

In  the  earliest  times  the  religious,  philosophical, 
legal  and  ethical  systems  had  not  been  invented.  The 
morale  at  that  time  was  a  natural  morale.  Humans 
knew  that  they  did  not  create  nature.  They  did  not 
feel  it  "proper"  to  "expropriate  the  creator"  and 
legalistically  appropriate  the  earth  and  its  treasure 
for  themselves.  They  felt,  in  their  unsophisticated 
morale,  that  being  called  into  existence  they  had  a 
natural  right  to  exist  and  to  use  freely  the  gifts  of 
nature  in  the  preservation  of  their  life;  and  that  is 
what  they  did. 

After  the  death  of  a  man,  some  of  the  objects  pro- 
duced by  him  still  survived,  such  as  weapons,  fishing 
or  hunting  instruments,  or  the  caves  adapted  for  liv- 
ing; a  baby  had  to  be  nourished  for  some  years  by 
its  parents  or  it  would  have  died.  Those  facts  had 
important  consequences;  objects  made  by  someone 
for  some  particular  use  could  be  used  by  someone 
else,  even  after  the  death  of  one  or  more  successive 
users ;  again  the  experiences  acquired  by  one  member 
of  a  family  or  a  group  of  people  were  taught  by 
example  or  precept  to  others  of  the  same  generation 
and  to  the  next  generation.  Such  simple  facts  are  the 
corner  stones  of  our  whole  civilization  and  they  are 
the  direct  result  of  the  HUMAN  CAPACITY  OF  TIME- 
BINDING. 


io6  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

The  world  to-day  is  full  of  controversy  about 
wealth,  capital,  and  money,  and  because  humanity, 
through  its  peculiar  time-binding  power,  binds  this 
element  "time"  in  an  ever  larger  and  larger  degree, 
the  controversy  becomes  more  and  more  acute. 
Civilization  as  a  process  is  the  process  of  binding 
time ;  progress  is  made  by  the  fact  that  each  genera- 
tion adds  to  the  material  and  spiritual  wealth  which 
it  inherits.  Past  achievements — the  fruit  of  bygone 
time — thus  live  in  the  present,  are  augmented  in  the 
present,  and  transmitted  to  the  future;  the  process 
goes  on;  time,  the  essential  element,  is  so  involved 
that,  though  it  increases  arithmetically,  its  fruit, 
civilization,  advances  geometrically. 

But  there  is  another  peculiarity  in  wealth  and 
money:  If  a  wooden  or  iron  "inch"  be  allowed  to 
rot  or  rust  quietly  on  some  shelf,  this  "inch"  does 
not  represent  anything  besides  this  piece  of  wood  or 
iron.  But  if  we  take  the  MENTAL  value  of  an  inch, 
this  unit  of  one  of  the  measures  of  space,  and  use  it, 
with  other  quantities,  in  the  contemplation  of  the 
skies  for  the  solving  of  an  astronomical  problem,  it 
gives  a  prophetic  answer  that,  in  a  certain  place  there 
is  a  star;  this  star,  may  be  for  years  looked  for  in 
vain.  Was  it  that  the  calculation  was  wrong?  No, 
for  after  further  search  with  telescopes  of  greater 
power,  the  star  is  found  and  the  calculation  thus 
verified. 


WEALTH  107 

It  is  obvious  that  the  "unit" — inch — has  no  value 
by  itself,  but  is  very  precious  as  a  unit  for  measuring 
the  phenomenon  of  length,  which  it  perfectly  repre- 
sents, and  that  is  why  it  was  introduced. 

It  is  exactly  the  same  with  money  if  the  term  be 
rightly  understood.  Understood  aright,  money, 
being  the  measure  and  representative  of  wealth,  is 
in  the  main,  the  measure  and  the  representative  of 
dead  men's  toil;  for,  rightly  understood,  wealth  is 
almost  entirely  the  product  of  the  labor  of  by-gone 
generations.  This  product,  we  have  seen,  involves 
the  element  of  time  as  the  chief  factor.  And  so  we 
discover  how  money,  properly  understood,  is  con- 
nected with  time — the  main  function  of  money  is  to 
measure  and  represent  the  accumulated  products  of 
the  labor  of  past  generations.  Hoarded  money  is 
like  an  iron  "inch"  upon  a  shelf — a  useless  lump; 
but  when  used  as  a  measure  and  representative  of 
wealth  rightly  understood,  money  renders  invaluable 
service,  for  it  then  serves  to  measure  and  represent 
the  living  fruit  of  dead  men's  toil. 

For  this  reason,  it  is  useless  to  argue  who  is  the 
more  important,  the  capitalist  who  has  legal  posses- 
sion of  most  of  the  material  fruit  of  dead  men's  toil, 
or  the  laborer  who  has  legal  possession  of  but  little 
of  it.  In  the  laborer,  we  do  not  now  really  look 
for  his  physical  muscular  labor  ALONE;  for  this  is 
replaced  by  mechanical  or  animal  power  as  soon  as 


io8  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

it  can  be.  What  we  do  need  from  labor,  and  what 
we  will  always  need,  is  his  BRAIN — HIS  TIME-BIND- 
ING POWER. 

The  population  of  the  world  may  be  divided  into 
different  classes;  if  the  classes  are  not  here  enumer- 
ated in  the  customary  way,  it  is  because  it  is  neces- 
sary to  classify  human  beings,  as  nearly  as  possible, 
according  to  their  "power-value."  There  is  no  asser- 
tion that  this  is  an  ideal  classification,  but  if  someone 
is  moved  to  exclaim — "what  a  foolish,  unscientific 
division!" — I  will  answer  by  saying:  "I  grant  that 
the  division  is  foolish  and  unscientific;  but  IT  IS  THE 
ONLY  DIVISION  WHICH  CORRESPONDS  TO 
FACTS  IN  LIFE,  and  it  is  not  the  writer's  fault. 
By  this  'foolishness'  some  good  may  be  accom- 
plished." 

From  an  engineer's  point  of  view  humanity  is 
apparently  to  be  divided  into  three  classes;  (i)  the 
intellectuals;  (2)  the  rich;  and  (3)  the  poor.  This 
division  would  seem  to  be  contrary  to  all  the  rules 
of  logic,  but  it  corresponds  to  facts.  Of  course  some 
individuals  belong  to  two  of  the  classes  or  even  to 
all  three  of  them,  an  after-war  product,  but  essen- 
tially, they  belong  to  the  one  class  IN  PROPORTION 
to  the  characteristic  which  is  the  most  marked  in 
their  life;  that  is,  in  the  sense  of  social  classes — 

BASED  ON  MAGNITUDE  OF  VALUES. 

( i )   The  intellectuals  are  the  men  and  women 


WEALTH  109 

who  possess  the  knowledge  produced  by  the  labor 
of  by-gone  generations  but  do  not  possess  the  ma- 
terial wealth  thus  produced.  In  mastering  and  using 
this  inheritance  of  knowledge,  they  are  exercising 
their  time-binding  energies  and  making  the  labor  of 
the  dead  live  in  the  present  and  for  the  future. 

(2)  The  rich  are  those  who  have  possession  and 
control  of  most  of  the  material  wealth  produced  by 
the  toil  of  bygone  generations — wealth  that  is  dead 
unless  animated  and  transformed  by  the  time-binding 
labor  of  the  living. 

(3)  The  poor  are  those  who  have  neither  the 
knowledge   possessed   by   the    intellectuals   nor   the 
material  wealth  possessed  by  the  rich  and  who,  more- 
over, because  nearly  all  their  efforts,  under  present 
conditions,  are  limited  to  the  struggle  for  mere  ex- 
istence, have  little  or  no  opportunity  to  exercise  their 
time-binding  capacity. 

Let  us  now  try  to  ascertain  the  role  of  the  time- 
binding  class  of  life  as  a  whole.  We  have  by 
necessity,  to  go  back  to  the  beginning — back  to  the 
savage.  We  have  seen  what  were  the  conditions 
of  his  work  and  progress ;  we  saw  that  for  each  suc- 
cessful achievement  he  often  had  to  wrestle  with  a 
very  large  number  of  unsuccessful  achievements,  and 
his  lifetime  being  so  limited,  the  total  of  his  success- 
ful achievements  was  very  limited,  so  that  he  was 
able  to  give  to  his  child  only  a  few  useful  objects  and 


no  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

the  sum  of  his  experience.  Generally  speaking,  each 
successor  did  not  start  his  life  at  the  point  where 
his  father  started;  he  started  somewhere  near  where 
his  father  left  off.  His  father  gave,  say,  fifty  years 
to  discover  two  truths  in  nature  and  succeeded  in 
making  two  or  three  simple  objects;  but  the  son  does 
not  need  to  give  fifty  years  to  discover  and  create  the 
same  achievements,  and  so  he  has  time  to  achieve 
something  new.  He  thus  adds  his  own  achievements 
to  those  of  his  father  in  tools  and  experience ;  this  is 
the  mathematical  equivalent  of  adding  his  parent's 
years  of  life  to  his  own.  His  mother's  work  and 
experience  are  of  course  included — the  name  father 
and  son  being  only  used  representatively. 

This  stupendous  Fact  is  the  definitive  mark  of 
humanity — the  power  to  roll  up  continuously  the 
ever-increasing  achievements  of  generation  after 
generation  endlessly.  We  have  seen  that  this  time- 
binding  power  is  an  exponential  power  or  function 
of  time.  Time  flows  on,  increasing  in  arithmetical 
progression,  adding  generation  unto  generation; 
but  the  results  of  human  energies  working  in  time 
do  not  go  on  arithmetically;  they  pile  up  or  roll  up 
more  and  more  rapidly,  augmenting  in  accordance 
with  the  law  of  a  more  and  more  rapidly  increasing 
geometric  progression.  The  typical  term  of  the 
progression  is  PRT  where  PR  denotes  the  ending 
progress  made  in  the  generation  with  which  we 


WEALTH  in 

agree  to  start  our  reckoning,  R  denotes  the  ratio 
increase,  and  T  denotes  the  number  of  generations 
after  the  chosen  "  start."  The  quantity,  PRT  of 
progress  made  in  the  Tth  generation  contains  T  as 
an  exponent,  and  so  the  quantity,  varying  as  time 
T  passes,  is  called  an  exponential  function  of  the 
time. 

Nature  is  the  source  of  all  energy.  Plants,  the 
lowest  form  of  life,  have  a  definite  role  to  perform 
in  the  economy  of  nature.  Their  function  is  the 
forming  of  albuminoids  and  other  substances  for 
higher  purposes.  All  of  their  nitrates  are  high- 
explosives,  or  low  explosives,  but  explosives  any- 
way. They  are  powerful  sources  of  some  new 
energy.  Animal  life  uses  these  "explosives"  as  food 
and  is  correspondingly  more  dynamic,  but  in  animal 
life  time  does  not  play  the  role  it  plays  in  human 
life.  Animals  are  limited  by  death  permanently.  If 
animals  make  any  progress  from  generation  to  gene- 
ration, it  is  so  small  as  to  be  negligible.  A  beaver, 
for  example,  is  a  remarkable  builder  of  dams,  but 
he  does  not  progress  in  the  way  of  inventions  or  fur- 
ther development.  A  beaver  dam  is  always  a  beaver 
dam. 

Finally  humanity,  the  highest  known  class  of 
life,  has  time-binding  capacity  as  its  characteristic, 
its  discriminant,  its  peculiar  and  definitive  mark. 
It  is  an  unrealized  fact  that  in  this  higher  class  of 


ii2  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

life,  the  law  of  organic  growth  develops  into  the  law 
of  energy-growth  —  the  mind  —  the  time-binding  energy  — 
an  increasing  exponential  function  of  time.  That 
fact  is  of  basic  importance  for  the  science  and  art 
of  Human  Engineering.  In  mechanics  we  have  the 
well-known  formula 

Work 

(i)     ^  —  =  Power. 
lime 

We  have  seen  that,  in  accordance  with  the  law  of 
geometric  progression,  PRT  represents  the  progress 
made  —  the  work  done  —  in  the  Tth  generation  (T 
being  counted  from  some  generation  taken  as  start- 
ing point  of  reckoning)  ;  this  progress,  achievement, 
or  work,  being  done  in  one  generation,  we  have  by  (i) 

Work=PRT 

(2)  —  ™  -  =  rower, 
Time  =  i 

that  is,  PRT  =  Power;  this  means  that  the  number 
PRT,  which  measures  the  work  done  in  a  given 
generation,  is  also  the  measure  of  the  power  that 
does  the  work.  Now,  the  total  work,  Wy  done  in 
the  T  generations  is 


(3)     !T 
that  is, 

(4)     W=  (PRT-P) 


WEALTH  113 

It  should  be  noticed  that  by  (2)  this  expression  for 
W  may  also  be  regarded  as  the  sum  of  T  different 
powers  PR,  PR2,  etc.,  each  working  during  one  and 
only  one  generation;  if  we  divided  this  sum  by  T, 
the  quotient  would  be  a  power  that  would  have  to 
act  through  T  generations  to  produce  W.  The 
reader  should  not  fail  to  notice  very  carefully  that 
the  expression  (4)  for  W  is  an  expression  for  the 
total  progress  made — the  total  work  done — the 
total  wealth  produced —  in  the  course  of  T  genera- 
tions and  he  should  especially  note  how  the  expres- 
sion involves  the  exponential  function  of  time  (T), 
namely  PRT. 

The  formula  makes  mathematically  evident  the 
time-binding  capacity  characteristic  of  the  human 
class  of  life.  Properly  understood,  wealth  consists 
of  the  fruits  or  products  of  this  time-binding  capac- 
ity of  man.  Animals  do  not  produce  wealth;  it  is 
produced  by  Man  and  only  Man.  The  foregoing 
basic  formulation  should  lead  to  further  similar 
developments  throwing  much  light  upon  the  process 
of  civilization  and  serving  to  eliminate  "  private 
opinion  "  from  the  conduct  of  human  affairs.  (In 
this  writing  it  is  not  important  to  look  deeper  into 
these  proposed  series.  The  fact  remains  that  P,  as 
well  as  jR,  are  peculiarly  increasing  series  of  a  geo- 
metrical character — the  precise  form  will  be  de- 
veloped in  another  writing.) 


ii4  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

Human  achievements  and  progress,  because  cumu- 
lative, are  knocking  out  the  barriers  of  time.  This 
fact  is  the  vital  and  dynamic  difference  between  ani- 
mal life  and  human  life.  As  plants  gather  in  and 
store  up  solar  energy  into  sheaves  for  the  use  and 
growth  of  animal  and  man — so  humans  are  gather- 
ing and  binding  the  knowledge  of  past  centuries  into 
sheaves  for  the  use  and  development  of  generations 
yet  unborn. 

We  have  seen  that  the  term  wealth,  rightly  under- 
stood, means  the  fruit  of  the  time-binding  work  of 
humanity.  Wealth  is  of  two  kinds:  one  is  material; 
the  other  is  knowledge.  Both  kinds  have  use-value. 
The  first  kind  perishes — the  commodities  composing 
it  deteriorate  and  become  useless.  The  other  is  per- 
manent in  character;  it  is  imperishable;  it  may  be  lost 
or  forgotten  but  it  does  not  wear  out. 

The  one  is  limited  in  time ;  the  other,  unlimited  in 
time;  the  former  I  call  POTENTIAL  USE-VALUE;  the 
latter,  KINETIC  USE-VALUE.  Analysis  will  justify  the ' 
names.  The  energy  of  a  body  which  is  due  to  its 
position,  is  called  potential  energy.  The  energy  of 
a  body  which  is  due  to  its  motion,  is  called  kinetic 
energy.  Here  the  material  use-value  has  value 
through  its  position,  shape  and  so  forth;  it  is  immo- 
bile if  not  used,  and  has  not  the  capacity  to  progress. 
Mental  use-values  are  not  static  but  permanently 
dynamic;  one  thought,  one  discovery,  is  the  impulse 


WEALTH  115 

to  others ;  they  follow  the  law  of  an  increasing  poten- 
tial function  of  time.  (See  app.  II.)  This  is  why 
these  names  correspond  to  the  two  names  of  the  two 
mentioned  classes  of  energy. 

Here  I  must  return  to  the  current  conceptions  of 
wealth  and  capital,  before  cited.  "Wealth,"  we  are 
told,  "is  any  useful  or  agreeable  thing  which  pos- 
sesses exchangeable  value."  And  we  are  told  that 
"Capital  is  that  part  of  wealth  which  is  devoted  to 
obtaining  further  wealth."  I  have  said  that  such 
conceptions — such  definitions — of  wealth  and  capital 
are  childish — they  belong  to  the  period  of  humanity's 
childhood.  That  they  are  indeed  childish  concep- 
tions the  reader  can  not  fail  to  see  if  he  will  reflect 
upon  them  and  especially  if  he  will  compare  them 
with  the  scientific  conception  according  to  which 
wealth  consists  of  those  things — whether  they  be 
material  commodities  or  forms  of  knowledge  and 
understanding — that  have  been  produced  by  the 
time-binding  energies  of  humanity,  and  according  to 
which  nearly  all  the  wealth  of  the  world  at  any  given 
time  is  the  accumulated  fruit  of  the  toil  of  past  gen- 
erations— the  living  work  of  the  dead.  It  seems 
unnecessary  to  warn  the  reader  against  confusing 
the  "making"  of  money  by  hook  or  crook,  by  trick 
or  trade,  with  the  creating  of  wealth,  by  the  product 
of  labor.  In  calling  the  old  conceptions  childish,  I 
do  not  mean  that  they  contain  no  element  of  truth 


u6  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

whatever;  I  mean  that  they  are  shallow,  scientifically 
or  spiritually  meagre,  narrow  in  their  vision,  wrong 
in  their  accent;  I  especially  mean  that  they  are  dumb, 
bcause  they  are  blind,  regarding  the  central  matter 
that  wealth  is  the  natural  offspring  of  Time  and 
Human  Toil.  The  old  conceptions  do  indeed  imply 
that  wealth  and  capital  involve  both  potential  and 
kinetic  use-values,  and  in  so  far  they  are  right.  But 
how  do  such  use-values  arise? 

The  potential  use-values  in  wealth  are  created  by 
human  work  operating  in  time  upon  raw  material 
given  by  nature.  The  use-values  are  produced  by 
time-taking  transformations  of  the  raw  materials; 
these  transformations  are  wrought  by  human  brain 
labor  and  human  muscular  labor  directed  by  the 
human  brain  acting  in  time.  The  kinetic  use-values 
of  wealth  are  also  created  by  human  toil — mainly  by 
the  intellectual  labor  of  observation,  experimenta- 
tion, imagination,  deduction  and  invention,  all  con- 
suming the  precious  time  of  short  human  lives.  It 
is  obvious  that  in  the  creation  of  use-values  whether 
potential  or  kinetic,  the  element  of  time  enters  as  an 
absolutely  essential  factor.  The  fundamental  im- 
portance of  time  as  a  factor  in  the  production  of 
wealth — the  fact  that  wealth  and  the  use-values  of 
wealth  are  literally  the  natural  offspring  of  the 
spiritual  union  of  time  with  toil — has  been  completely 
overlooked,  not  only  by  the  economics,  but  by  the 


WEALTH  117 

ethics,  the  jurisprudence  and  the  other  branches  of 
speculative  reasoning,  throughout  the  long  period  of 
humanity's  childhood.  In  the  course  of  the  ages  there 
has  indeed  been  much  "talk"  about  time,  but  there 
has  been  no  recognition  of  the  basic  significance  of 
time  as  essential  in  the  conception  and  in  the  very 
constitution  of  human  values. 

It  is  often  said  that  "Time  is  Money";  the  state- 
ment is  often  false;  but  the  proposition  that  Money 
is  Time  is  always  true.  It  is  always  true  in  the  pro- 
found sense  that  Money  is  the  measure  and  symbol 
of  Wealth — the  product  of  Time  and  Toil — the 
crystallization  of  the  time-binding  human  capacity. 
IT  IS  THUS  TRUE  THAT  MONEY  IS  A  VERY  PRECIOUS 

THING,   THE   MEASURE   AND   SYMBOL   OF  WORK IN 

PART  THE  WORK  OF  THE  LIVING  BUT,  IN  THE  MAIN, 
THE  LIVING  WORK  OF  THE  DEAD. 

Nature's  laws  are  supreme;  we  cannot  change 
them ;  we  can  deviate  from  them  for  a  while,  but  the 
end  is  evil.  That  is  the  lesson  we  must  learn  from 
the  history  of  Humanity's  childhood.  False  con- 
ceptions of  Man — ignorance  of  the  laws  of  human 
nature — have  given  us  unscientific  economies,  un- 
scientific ethics,  unscientific  law,  unscientific  politics, 
unscientific  government.  These  have  made  human 
history  the  history  of  social  cataclysms — insurrec- 
tions, wars,  revolutions — sad  tokens  not  so  much  of 
human  lust  as  of  human  ignorance  of  the  laws  of 


n8  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

human  nature.  There  is  but  one  remedy,  one  hope 
— a  science  and  art  of  Human  Engineering  based 
upon  the  just  conception  of  humanity  as  the  time- 
binding  class  of  life  and  conforming  to  the  laws  of 
nature  including  the  laws  of  human  nature. 


CHAPTER  VI 

CAPITALISTIC  ERA 

immortal  work  done  by  Descartes,  Newton 
and  Leibnitz  was  to  discover  powerful  methods 
for  mathematics — the  only  fit  language  for  express- 
ing the  laws  of  nature. 

Human  Engineering  will  be  the  science  by  which 
the  great  social  problems  will  be  solved.  For  the 
first  time  since  the  first  day  of  man,  humanity  will 
really  understand  its  own  nature  and  status;  and 
will  learn  to  direct  scientifically  the  living  and  the 
non-living  forces  for  construction,  avoiding  unneces- 
sary destruction  and  waste. 

It  may  seem  strange  but  it  is  true  that  the  time- 
binding  exponential  powers,  called  humans,  do  not 
die — their  bodies  die  but  their  achievements  live  for- 
ever— a  permanent  source  of  power.  All  of  our 
precious  possessions — science,  acquired  by  experi- 
ence, accumulated  wealth  in  all  fields  of  life — are 
kinetic  and  potential  use-values  created  and  left  by 
by-gone  generations;  they  are  humanity's  treasures 
produced  mainly  in  the  past,  and  conserved  for  our 
use,  by  that  peculiar  function  or  power  of  man  for 
the  binding  of  time.  That  the  natural  trend  of  life 

119 


120  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

and  the  progress  of  the  development  of  this  treasury 
is  so  often  checked,  turned  from  its  natural  course, 
or  set  back,  is  due  to  ignorance  of  human  nature,  to 
metaphysical  speculation  and  sophistry.  Those  who, 
with  or  without  intention,  keep  the  rate  of  humanity's 
mental  advancement  down  to  that  of  an  arithmetic 
progression  are  the  real  enemies  of  society;  for  they 
keep  the  life-regulating  "sciences"  and  institutions 
far  behind  the  gallop  of  life  itself.  The  consequence 
is  periodic  social  violence — wars  and  revolutions. 

Let  us  carry  the  analysis  of  potential  and  kinetic 
use-values  a  little  further.  All  potential  use-values 
left  to  us  by  the  dead  are  temporal  and  differ  in 
utility.  Many  potential  use-values  are  found  in 
museums  and  have  very  limited  value  to-day  in  prac- 
tical life.  On  the  other  hand  some  roads  or  water- 
ways built  by  the  ancients  have  use-value  to-day;  and 
an  almost  endless  list  of  modern  potential  use-values 
have  or  will  have  use-values  for  a  long  time  to  come, 
such  as  buildings,  improved  lands,  railroad  tracks, 
certain  machines  or  tools;  the  use-value  of  some  such 
items  of  material  wealth  will  last  for  more  than  one 
generation.  Kinetic  use-values  are  permanent  in 
their  character,  for,  though  they  may  become  anti- 
quated, they  yet  serve  as  the  foundation  for  the  de- 
velopments that  supersede  them,  and  so  they  continue 
to  live  in  that  to  which  they  lead. 

I  would  draw  attention  at  this  point  to  one  of  the 


CAPITALISTIC  ERA  12* 

most  important  kinetic  and  potential  use-values  pro- 
duced by  humanity — the  invention  of  the  steam 
engine.  Through  this  invention,  humanity  has  been 
able  to  avail  itself,  not  only  of  the  living  fruits  of 
dead  men's  toil,  but  also  of  the  inconceivably  vast 
amounts  of  solar  energy  and  time  bound  up  in  the 
growth  of  vegetable  life  and  conserved  for  use  in 
the  form  of  coal  and  other  fuels  of  vegetable  origin. 
This  invention  has  revolutionized  our  life  in  count- 
less directions.  To  be  brief,  I  will  analyse  only  the 
most  salient  effects.  Human  Engineering  has  never 
existed  except  in  the  most  embryonic  form.  In 
remote  antiquity  the  conception  and  knowledge  of 
natural  law  was  wholly  absent  or  exceedingly  vague. 
Before  the  invention  of  the  steam  engine,  people 
depended  mainly  upon  human  powers — that  is,  upon 
"living  powers" — the  powers  of  living  men,  and  the 
living  fruits  of  the  labor  of  the  dead.  Even  then 
there  were  manifold  complications. 

The  invention  of  the  steam  engine  released  for 
human  use  a  new  power  of  tremendous  magnitude — 
the  stored-up  power  of  solar  energy  and  ages  of 
time.  But  we  must  not  fail  to  note  carefully  that  we 
to-day  are  enabled  to  use  this  immense  new  power 
of  bound-up  solar  energy  and  time  by  a  human  inven- 
tion, a  product  of  the  dead. 

The  full  significance  of  the  last  statement  requires 
reflection.  The  now  dead  inventor  of  the  steam 


122  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

engine  could  not  have  produced  his  ingenious  inven- 
tion except  by  using  the  living  powers  of  other  dead 
men — except  by  using  the  material  and  spiritual  or 
mental  wealth  created  by  those  who  had  gone  before. 
In  the  inventor's  intellectual  equipment  there  was 
actively  present  the  kinetic  use-value  of  "bound-up- 
time," enabling  him  to  discover  the  laws  of  heat, 
water,  and  steam;  and  he  employed  both  the  poten- 
tial and  kinetic  use-values  of  mechanical  instruments, 
methods  of  work,  and  scientific  knowledge  of  his 
time  and  generation — use-values  of  wealth  created 
by  the  genius  and  toil  of  by-gone  generations.  This 
invention  was  not  produced,  let  us  say  6000  years 
ago,  because  civilization  was  not  then  sufficiently  ad- 
vanced: mathematically  considered,  the  production 
of  this  great  use-value  had  to  await  all  the  accumu- 
lated work  of  six  thousand  years  of  human  ingenuity 
and  human  labor.  So,  if  we  choose,  the  steam  engine 
may  be  considered  a  kinetic  use-value  in  which  the 
factor  of  time  is  equal  to  something  like  6000  years, 
or  let  us  say  roughly  200  generations. 

It  is  obvious  that,  in  one  life  time,  even  a  genius 
of  the  highest  order,  could  not,  in  aboriginal  condi- 
tions, have  invented  and  built  a  steam  engine,  when 
everything,  even  iron,  was  unknown.  Of  course  if 
the  same  inventor  could  have  had  a  life  of  several 
thousands  of  years  and  could  have  consecutively  fol- 
lowed up  all  the  processes,  unhampered  by  the  preju- 


CAPITALISTIC  ERA  123 

dices  of  those  days,  and  been  able  to  make  all  of 
these  inventions  by  himself,  he  would  represent  in 
himself  all  the  progress  of  civilization. 

By  this  illustration  we  see  the  profound  meaning 
of  the  words — the  living  powers  of  the  dead ;  we  see 
the  grave  importance  in  human  life  of  the  factor 
TIME  ;  we  behold  the  significance  of  the  time-binding 
capacity  of  man.  The  steam  engine  is  to  be  seen 
anew,  as  in  the  main  the  accumulated  production  of 
dead-men's  work.  The  life  of  one  generation  is 
short,  and  were  it  not  for  our  human  capacity  to 
inherit  the  material  and  spiritual  fruit  of  dead  men's 
toil,  to  augment  it  a  little  in  the  brief  span  of  our 
own  lives,  and  to  transmit  it  to  posterity,  the  process 
of  civilization  would  not  be  possible  and  our  present 
estate  would  be  that  of  aboriginal  man.  Civilization 
is  a  creature,  its  creator  is  the  time-binding  power 
of  man.  Animals  have  it  not,  because  they  belong 
to  a  lower  type  or  dimension  of  life. 

Sophistry  avails  nothing  here;  a  child,  left  in  the 
woods,  would  be  and  remain  a  savage,  matching  his 
wits  with  gorillas.  He  becomes  a  civilized  man  only 
by  the  accumulation  of,  and  acquaintance  with  dead 
men's  work;  for  then  and  only  then  can  he  start 
where  the  preceding  generation  left  off.  This 
capacity  is  peculiar  to  men;  the  fact  can  not  be  re- 
peated too  often. 

It  is  untrue  to  say  that  A  started  his  life  aided 


124  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

exclusively  by  the  achievements  of  (say)  his  father, 
for  his  father's  achievements  depended  on  the 
achievements  of  his  immediate  predecessors;  and  so 
on  all  the  way  back  through  the  life  of  humanity. 
This  fact,  of  supreme  ethical  importance,  applies  to 
all  of  us;  none  of  us  may  speak  or  act  as  if  the 
material  or  spiritual  wealth  we  have  were  produced 
by  us ;  for,  if  we  be  not  stupid,  we  must  see  that  what 
we  call  our  wealth,  our  civilization,  everything  we 
use  or  enjoy,  is  in  the  main  the  product  of  the  labor 
of  men  now  dead,  some  of  them  slaves,  some  of  them 
"owners"  of  slaves.  The  metal  spoon  or  the  knife 
which  we  use  daily  is  a  product  of  the  work  of  many 
generations,  including  those  who  discovered  the 
metal  and  the  use  of  it,  and  the  utility  of  the  spoon. 

And  here  arises  a  most  important  question:  Since 
the  wealth  of  the  world  is  in  the  main  the  free  gift 
of  the  past — the  fruit  of  the  labor  of  the  dead — 
to  whom  does  it  of  right  belong?  The  question  can 
not  be  evaded.  Is  the  existing  monopoly  of  the  great 
inherited  treasures  produced  by  dead  men's  toil  a 
normal  and  natural  evolution? 

Or  is  it  an  artificial  status  imposed  by  the  few 
upon  the  many?  Such  is  the  crux  of  the  modern 
controversy. 

It  is  generally  known  that  the  invention  of  the 
steam  engine  and  other  combustion  engines  which  re- 
lease sun-power  for  mechanical  use,  has  revolution- 


CAPITALISTIC  ERA  125 

ized  the  economic  system ;  for  the  building  of  engines 
in  the  scale  of  modern  needs,  it  is  necessary  to  con- 
centrate a  great  number  of  living  men  in  one  place, 
to  build  factories,  to  set  up  machines  used  in  pro- 
ducing the  engines,  and  all  this  requires  the  use  of 
vast  amounts  of  money.  That  is  why  this  era  is 
called  the  capitalistic  era.  But  it  is  necessary  to  stop 
here  and  analyse  the  factors  of  value  in  the  engine 
to  be  made  and  in  the  money  used  for  the  purpose  of 
making  use  of  the  stored-up  energies  of  the  sun.  We 
have  found  that  the  major  part  of  the  engine  and  all 
factors  connected  with  its  production  are  the  com- 
bined power  of  dead  men's  labor.  We  have  found 
that  wealth  or  capital  and  its  symbol,  money,  are 
also,  in  the  main,  the  bound-up  power  of  dead  men's 
labor;  so  that  the  only  way  to  obtain  the  benefit  in  the 
release  of  sun-power,  is  by  using  the  product  of  the 
toil  of  the  dead.  It  is  further  obvious  that  only  the 
men  or  organizations  that  are  able  to  concentrate  the 
largest  amounts  of  money,  representing  the  work  of 
the  dead,  can  have  the  fullest  use  of  the  stored-up 
energies  of  time  and  the  ancient  sun.  Thus  the 
monopoly  of  the  stored-up  energies  of  the  sun  arises 
from  monopolizing  the  accumulated  fruits  of  dead 
men's  toil.  These  problems  will,  in  the  future,  be 
the  concern  of  the  science  and  art  of  Human  Engi- 
neering. 

Let  us  glance  briefly  at  the  problems  from  another 


i26  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

angle.  The  power  developed  in  the  combustion  of 
one  pound  of  coal  is  theoretically  equal  to  1 1,580,000 
foot  pounds.  But  by  our  imperfect  methods  of  utili- 
zation, not  more  than  1,500,000  foot  pounds  are 
made  available.  This  is  about  the  amount  of 
physical  power  exerted  by  a  man  of  ordinary 
strength  during  a  day's  work.  Hence  300  pounds 
of  coal  will  represent  the  labor  of  a  man  for  a 
year.  The  current  production  of  coal  in  the  world 
is  about  500,000,000  tons  (1906).  If  we  suppose 
that  only  half  of  this  coal  goes  for  mechanical  use, 
this  will  give  us  approximately  the  number  as  1,600,- 
000,000  man-powers  that  are  producers  but  not  con- 
sumers. 

Let  us  take  a  still  broader  view  of  resources;  we 
have  approximately  1,600,000,000  living  human 
beings  (all  censuses  available  between  1902  and 
1906) ;  a  wealth  of  approximately  $357,000,000,- 
ooo  (Social  Progress,  1906,  page  221)  which  in  our 
analysis  is  dead  men's  work;  and  sun-power  equal, 
in  work,  to  the  work  of  our  whole  living  population, 
or  equal  to  1,600,000,000  sun  man-powers.  Taking, 
for  simplicity's  sake,  $35.70  as  the  average  living  ex- 
penses per  annum  for  each  one  of  the  world's  pop- 
ulation, we  will  have: 

(1)  1,600,000,000  living  men. 

(2)  10,000,000,000   living  man-powers   of   the 
dead. 


CAPITALISTIC  ERA  127 

(3)    1,600,000,000  sun  man-powers. 

Such  classification  needs  a  reflection :  man  is  intrin- 
sically an  increasing  exponential  power  and  always 
produces  two  use-values — the  potential  and  the 
kinetic.  All  living  men  have  in  some  degree  this  type 
of  power;  «they  are  able  to  direct  and  use  basic 
powers. 

So  we  see  that  this  world  is  really  populated  to- 
day by  three  different  populations,  all  of  them 
dynamic  and  active:  to  wit,  1,600,000,000  living 
men;  10,000,000,000  living  man-powers  of  the  dead; 
1,600,000,000  sun  man-powers. 

Thus  it  is  obvious  beyond  any  argument,  that  this 
additional  producing  but  not  consuming  population, 
has  been  produced  mainly  by  the  work  of  all  our  past 
generations.  It  is  said  "mainly"  because,  if  we  were 
the  first  generation,  we  would  be  just  aboriginal  sav- 
ages having  nothing  and  progressing  very  slowly. 
The  reason  why  we  progress  very  rapidly,  in  this 
stage  of  civilization,  is  explained  very  clearly  by  the 
mathematical  law  of  a  geometrical  progression,  with 
an  ever  increasing  number  of  terms,  the  magnitude 
of  the  terms  increasing  more  rapidly  all  the  time.* 

*  Of  course,  the  geometric  progression  does  not  represent 
precisely  the  law  of  human  progression;  it  is  here  employed 
because  it  is  familiar  and  serves,  better  perhaps  than  any  other 
simple  mathematical  means,  to  show  roughly  how  human  prog- 
ress goes  on.  The  essential  elements  of  a  progression  are  the 
first  term  P  and  the  ratio  R  and  the  number  of  the  terms  T; 
in  the  human  progression  PR1'  PR*,  PR*,  .  .  .  PRT,  P  is  the 


128  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

This  fact  is  the  reason  why  the  old  unscientific  and 
artificial  social  system  requires  and  must  undergo 
profound  transformation.  Human  progress,  in 
many  directions,  is  so  far  advanced  that  social  insti- 
tutions can  not  much  longer  continue  to  lag  so  far 
behind.  Static  ethics,  static  jurisprudence,  static 
economics,  and  the  rest  must  become  dynamic;  if 
they  do  not  continue  to  progress  peacefully  in  accord- 
ance with  the  law  of  the  progress  of  science,  they 
will  be  forced  by  violent  readjustments,  recurring 
with  ever  increasing  frequency. 

Here  we  have  a  problem  of  very  high  importance 
and  enormous  magnitude.  To  serve  1,600,000,000 
living  men,  we  have  11,600,000,000  dead  man- 
powers and  all  the  sun  man-powers — SEVEN  SER- 
VANTS TO  EACH  LIVING  MAN,  WOMAN  AND  CHILD 

starting  status  of  the  first  generation,  R  is  the  peculiar  capacity 
of  humans  to  bind  time  and  is  a  free  gift  and  law  of  nature, 
which  it  would  be  folly  not  to  recognize  and  accept  as  such, 
T  is  time,  or  number  of  generations.  It  is  obvious  that  the 
magnitude,  PRT,  is  entirely  dependent  on  the  magnitudes  of  PR, 
and  T.  The  existence  of  R  and  T  is  independent  of  humans, 
R  being  a  law  of  nature,  T  a  gift  of  nature,  P  the  starting  status 
of  the  initial  generation.  With  P  =  OorR  =0  THERE  WOULD 
BE  NO  PROGRESS  or  progression  at  all;  each  term  in  the  case 
of  human  progression  is  mainly  dependent  upon  the  time  and 
the  work  done  by  the  dead.  The  existence  of  R  and  T  is  entirely 
beyond  human  control.  Humans  can  control  only  the  MAGNI- 
TUDE of  those  elements  by  education.  Here  comes  the  tre- 
mendous responsibility  of  education.  It  is  not  necessary  to 
use  much  imagination  to  se  e  that  if  humanity  had  always  been 
rightly  educated,  science  would  have  long  ago  discovered  the 
natural  forces  and  laws  essential  to  human  welfare,  and  human 
misery  would  to-day  be  relatively  small. 


CAPITALISTIC  ERA  129 

included.  It  looks  like  the  millennium.  It  would  be  so 
if  we  but  used  all  this  power  in  a  constructive  way, 
eliminating  waste  and  controversy  and  all  those  fac- 
tors which  hamper  production  and  progress.  The 
present  economic  system  does  not  realize  even  the 
beginning  of  the  magnitude  of  this  truth  and  the 
tremendous  results  which  are  to  be  achieved  through 
the  adjustment  of  it.  The  problem  will  be  solved  by 
Human  Engineering,  for  this  will  establish  the  right 
understanding  of  values  and  will  show  how  to  man- 
age world  problems  scientifically ;  it  will  give  a  scien- 
tific foundation  to  Political  Economy  and  transform 
so-called  "scientific  shop  management"  into  genuine 
''scientific  world  management."  * 

There  is  a  chasm  between  "Capital"  and  "Labor," 
but  nature  does  not  know  "Capital"  or  "Labor"  at  all. 
Nature  knows  only  matter,  energy,  "space,"  "time," 
potential  and  kinetic  use-values,  forces  in  all  their 
direct  and  indirect  expression,  the  energies  of  living 
men,  living  powers  of  dead  men,  and  the  bound-up 
powers  of  Time  and  the  ancient  Sun.  Nature  made 
man  an  increasing  exponential  function  of  time,  a 
time-binder,  a  power  able  to  transform  and  direct 
basic  powers.  Sometimes  we  hypocritically  like  to 
delude  ourselves,  if  our  delusions  are  agreeable — 
and  profitable.  We  call  human  work  "manual 
labor"  and  we  pretend  that  we  need  the  laborer  for 
*  See  Appendix  III. 


130  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

his  muscular  service,  but  when  we  thus  speak,  we  are 
thoughtless,  stupid,  or  insincere.  What  we  look  for 
in  the  worker  is  his  control  of  his  muscles;  mechan- 
ical work  is  or  can  be  replaced  almost  entirely  by 
machinery.  What  we  will  never  be  able  to  replace 
by  machinery  is  a  Man,  because  man  belongs  to  the 
level  of  a  dimension  above  machinery.  Engine- 
power,  sun  man-power,  and  capital — mainly  the 
work  of  the  dead — are  inanimate ;  they  become  pro- 
ductive only  when  quickened  by  the  time-binding 
energies  of  living  men  and  women.  Then  only  are 
the  results  proportional  to  the  ever  growing  magni- 
tude of  exponential  power.  In  nature's  economy  the 
time-binders  are  the  intelligent  forces.  There  is  none 
else  known  to  us,  and  from  the  engineer's  point  of 
view,  Edison  and  the  simplest  laborer,  Smith  or 
Jones,  are  basically  the  same;  their  powers  or  capac- 
ities are  exponential,  and,  though  differing  in  degree, 
are  the  same  in  kind.  This  may  seem  optimistic  but 
all  engineers  are  optimists.  They  deal  only  with  fact 
and  truth.  If  they  make  mistakes,  if  their  bridges 
break  down,  then,  no  matter  how  clever  their  sophis- 
try, they  are  adjudged  criminal.  Like  severity  must 
be  made  the  rule  and  practice  toward  all  those  who 
control  the  institutions  and  great  affairs  of  human 
society.  Periodical  break-downs  must  be  prevented. 
The  engineers  of  human  society  must  be  held  respon- 
sible, as  the  bridge  engineer  is  held  to-day. 


CAPITALISTIC  EEA  131" 

Things  are  often  simpler  than  they  appear  at  the 
first  glance.  There  may  be  fire  and  plenty  of  coal  in 
a  stove,  yet  no  heat ;  the  fire  does  not  burn  well ;  an 
engineer  will  remove  the  natural  causes  of  obstruc- 
tion of  the  natural  process;  even  such  a  simple  thing 
as  the  removal  of  ashes  may  solve  the  problem.  It 
seems  simple  enough.  The  truth  is  often  clear  and 
simple,  if  only  it  be  not  obscured  and  complicated  by 
sophistry. 

"Capitalistic"  reasoning  and  "Socialistic"  reason- 
ing— Nature  does  not  know  such  things.  Nature  has 
only  one  "reasoning"  in  all  its  functions.  Our  falsi- 
fying of  nature's  laws  makes  the  controversy. 
Socialism  exists  as  an  ism  because  Capitalism  exists 
as  an  ism;  the  clash  is  only  an  expression  of  the 
eternal  law  of  action  and  reaction. 

We  are  living  in  a  world  of  wealth,  a  world  en- 
riched by  many  generations  of  dead  men's  toil;  be- 
tween the  lust  of  the  one  to  keep  and  the  lust  of 
others  to  get,  there  is  little  to  choose;  such  conten- 
tions of  lust  against  lust  are  sub-human — animalistic; 
such  ethics  is  zoological  ethics — the  righteousness  of 
tooth  and  claw;  below  the  human  dimensions  of 
life,  utterly  unworthy  of  the  creative  energy — the 
time-binding  capacity — of  humanity.  Socialism 
feels  keenly  and  sees  dimly  that  human  affairs  are 
not  conducted  in  conformity  with  natural  laws. 
Capitalism  neither  sees  it  nor  keenly  feels  it.  Neither 


132  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

the  one  nor  the  other  stops  to  investigate  natural 
laws — nature's  laws — laws  of  human  nature — scien- 
tifically. They  both  of  them  use  the  same  specula- 
tive methods  in  their  arguments,  and  there  can  be 
no  issue.  Against  one  old-fashioned,  speculative 
argument,  there  is  always  a  speculative  answer.  They 
both  speak  about  the  truth,  but  their  methods  can 
not  find  the  truth  nor  their  language  express  it.  They 
speak  of  "justice,"  "right"  and  so  forth,  not  know- 
ing that  their  conceptions  of  those  terms  are  based 
on  a  wrong  understanding  of  values.  There  is  one 
and  but  one  remedy,  and  that  remedy  consists  in 
applying  scientific  method  to  the  study  of  the  subject. 
Sound  reasoning,  once  introduced,  will  overrun 
humanity  as  the  fields  turn  green  in  the  spring; 
it  will  eliminate  the  waste  of  energy  in  contro- 
versies; it  will  attract  all  forces  toward  construc- 
tion and  the  exploitation  of  nature  for  the  common 
weal. 

There  are  capitalists  and  capitalists;  there  are 
socialists  and  socialists.  Among  the  capitalists  there 
are  those  who  want  wealth — mainly  the  fruit  of  dead 
men's  toil — for  themselves.  Among  the  socialists 
there  are  those — the  orthodox  socialists — who  seek 
to  disperse  it.  The  former  do  not  perceive  that 
the  product  of  the  labor  of  the  dead  is  itself  dead 
if  not  quickened  by  the  energies  of  living  men.  The 
orthodox  socialists  do  not  perceive  the  tremendous 


CAPITALISTIC  ERA  133 

benefits  that  accrue  to  mankind  from  the  accumula- 
tion of  wealth,  if  rightly  used. 

Whether  we  be  capitalists  or  socialists  or  neither, 
we  must  learn  that  to  prey  upon  the  treasury  left 
by  the  dead  is  to  live,  not  the  life  of  a  human  being, 
but  that  of  a  ghoul.  Legalistic  title — documentary 
ownership — does  not  alter  the  fact.  Neither  does 
lust  for  the  same. 

When  we  have  acquired  the  just  conception  of 
what  a  human  being  is  we  shall  get  away  from  the 
Roman  conception  according  to  which  a  human  being 
is  instrumentum  vocale;  an  animal,  instrumentum 
semivocale:  and  a  tool,  instrumentum  mutum.  To 
regard  human  beings  as  tools — as  instruments — for 
the  use  of  other  human  beings  is  not  only  unscientific 
but  it  is  repugnant,  stupid  and  short  sighted.  Tools 
are  made  by  man  but  have  not  the  autonomy  of  their 
maker — they  have  not  man's  time-binding  capacity 
for  initiation,  for  self-direction,  and  self-improve- 
ment. In  their  own  nature,  tools,  instruments,  ma- 
chines belong  to  a  dimension  far  lower  than  that  of 
man. 

Talk  of  dimensions  or  dimensionality  is  by  no 
means  theoretical  rubbish.  The  right  understanding 
of  dimensions  is  of  life-and-death  importance  in  prac- 
tical life.  The  intermixing  of  dimensions  leads  to 
wrong  conclusions  in  our  thought  and  wrong  conclu- 
sions lead  to  disasters. 


134  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

Consider  the  classes  of  life  as  representing  three 
dimensions  (as  explained  in  an  earlier  chapter),  then 
human  production  belongs  essentially  to  the  human 
or  as  I  call  it  the  third  dimension.  With  the  base 
of  (say)  5,  we  produce  in  the  third  dimension  a 
result  of  125  units,  and  so  when  humans  are  paid 
but  25  units  in  accordance  with  the  standards  of  the 
second  dimension  (that  of  animals),  humanity  is 
deprived  of  the  benefit  of  100  units  of  produced 
wealth.  That  is  an  illustration  of  what  a  part  dimen- 
sions play  in  practical  life.  The  reflective  reader 
may  analyse  for  himself  what  effect  these  same  rules 
would  have,  if  expressed  and  applied  in  the  human 
"time-binding"  dimension,  time  being  the  supreme 
test.  The  following  table  gives  the  visual  shock : 

1st  Dimension       2nd  Dimension      3rd  Dimension 
5  25  125 

IO  100  I,OOO 

IOO  IO,OOO         1,000,000 

I,OOO  1,000,000       1,000,000,000 

This  explains  why  the  intermixing  of  dimensions 
is  the  source  of  tremendous  evil. 

Who  can  now  assert  that  the  problem  of  dimen- 
sions is  one  only  of  theory?  It  is  not  even  a  ques- 
tion of  limitation  of  mind,  but  it  becomes  a 
question  of  limitation  of  eyesight,  not  to  be  able  to 
see  the  overwhelming  differences  between  the  laws 
of  development  of  the  first,  second,  and  the  third 
dimension. 


CAPITALISTIC  ERA  135 

Dollars,  or  pounds  sterling,  or  other  units  of 
money  follow  the  same  rules:  the  strength  and  in 
fact  the  source  of  power  of  modern  capitalism,  is 
found  in  just  this  difference  in  dimensions — in  the 
difference  between  what  is  given  and  what  is  taken, 
in  the  difference  between  what  is  earned  and  what  is 
"made."  The  problem  of  dimensions  is,  therefore, 
a  key  which  unlocks  the  secrets  of  the  power  of  capi- 
talism and  opens  the  door  to  a  new  civilization  where 
the  understanding  of  dimensions  will  establish  order 
out  of  the  chaos. 

We  have  seen  that  kinetic  and  potential  use-values, 
produced  mainly  by  the  dead,  are  bound  up  in  wealth, 
which  is  measured  and  symbolized  by  money.  This 
being  true,  it  is  obvious  that  money  is  a  measure  and 
symbol  of  power,  of  work  done,  of  bound-up  time. 

The  space-binding  animal  standard  of  misciviliza- 
tion  has  brought  us  to  an  impasse — a  blind  alley — 
for  the  simple  physical  reason  that  there  is  no  more 
space  to  "bind."  Practically  all  the  habitable  lands, 
and  practically  all  the  natural  resources,  are  already 
divided  among  private  legalistic  owners.  What  hope 
is  there  for  the  ever  increasing  population? 

But  we  have  these  1,600,000,000  living  men; 
10,000,000,000  living  man-powers  of  the  dead;  and 
1,600,000,000  sun  man-powers:  that  is  indeed  a  tre- 
mendous power  to  PRODUCE  WEALTH  FOR  ALL,  IF 
WISELY  DIRECTED,  but  to-day  it  is  ignorantly  and 


136  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

shamefully  misdirected,  because  human  beings  are  not 
treated  in  accordance  with  their  nature  as  the  time- 
binding  class  of  life. 

Much  more  is  to  be  gained  in  exploiting  nature 
aimfully,  all  the  time,  with  a  full  mobilization  of  our 
living,  dead,  and  sun-powers,  than  by  exploiting  man 
all  the  time  and  nature  occasionally.  Selfishness  and 
ignorance — is  it  these  that  prevent  full  mobilization 
of  the  producing  powers  of  the  world? 

Such  as  contribute  most  to  human  progress  and 
human  enlightenment — men  like  Gutenberg,  Coper- 
nicus, Newton,  Leibnitz,  Watts,  Franklin,  Mende- 
leieff,  Pasteur,  Sklodowska-Curie,  Edison,  Steinmetz, 
Loeb,  Dewey,  Keyser,  Whitehead,  Russell,  Poincare, 
William  Benjamin  Smith,  Gibbs,  Einstein,  and  many 
others — consume  no  more  bread  than  the  simplest 
of  their  fellow  mortals.  Indeed  such  men  are  often 
in  want.  How  many  a  genius  has  perished  inarticu- 
late because  unable  to  stand  the  strain  of  social  con- 
ditions where  animal  standards  prevail  and  "survival 
of  the  fittest"  means,  not  survival  of  the  "fittest  in 
time-binding  capacity,"  but  survival  of  the  strongest 
in  ruthlessness  and  guile — in  space-binding  compe- 
tition ! 

Wealth  is  produced  by  those  who  work  with  hand 
or  brain  and  by  no  others.  The  great  mass  of  the 
wealth  of  the  world  has  been  thus  produced  by  gen- 
erations that  have  gone.  We  know  that  the  greatest 


CAPITALISTIC  ERA  137 

wealth  producers — immeasurably  the  greatest — have 
been  and  are  scientific  men,  discoverers  and  in- 
ventors. If  an  invention,  in  the  course  of  a  few 
years  after  it  is  made,  must  become  public  property, 
then  the  wealth  produced  by  the  use  of  the  inven- 
tion should  also  become  public  property  in  the  course 
of  a  like  period  of  years  after  it  is  thus  produced. 
Against  this  proposition  no  sophistry  can  avail. 

One  of  the  greatest  powers  of  modern  times  is 
the  Press;  it  commands  the  resources  of  space  and 
time;  it  affects  in  a  thousand  subtle  ways  the  form 
of  our  thoughts.  It  controls  the  exchange  of  news 
throughout  the  world.  Unfortunately  the  press  is 
often  controlled  by  exploiters  of  the  "living  powers 
of  the  dead,"  and  so  what  is  presented  as  news  is 
frequently  so  limited,  colored  and  distorted  by  selfish 
interests  as  to  be  falsehood  in  the  guise  of  truth. 
Honest,  independent  papers  are  frequently  starved 
by  selfish  conspirators  and  forced  to  close  down. 
Thus  the  press,  which  is  itself  the  product  in  the 
main  of  dead  men's  toil,  is  made  a  means  for  the 
deception  and  exploitation  of  the  living.  Indeed  the 
bitter  words  of  Voltaire  seem  to  be  too  true :  "Since 
God  created  man  in  his  own  image,  how  often  has 
man  endeavored  to  render  similar  service  to  God." 
Those  who  want  to  use  such  "God-like"  powers  to 
rule  the  world  are  modern  Neros,  who  in  their 
wickedness  and  folly  fancy  themselves  divine.  To 


138  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

deceive,  and  through  deception,  to  exploit,  rob  and 
subjugate  living  men  and  women,  and  to  do  it  by 
prostituting  the  living  powers  created  by  the  dead, 
is  the  work,  I  will  not  say  of  men,  but  of  mad  men, 
greedy,  ignorant  and  blind.  What  is  the  remedy? 
Revolution?  Revolution  is  also  mad.  The  only 
remedy  is  enlightenment — knowledge,  knowledge  of 
nature,  knowledge  of  human  nature,  scientific  educa- 
tion, science  applied  to  all  the  affairs  of  man — the 
science  and  art  of  Human  Engineering. 


CHAPTER  VII 

SURVIVAL  OF  THE  FITTEST 

TTUMANITY  is  a  dynamic  affair,  nay,  the  most 
dynamic  known,  because  it  is  able  to  transform 
and  direct  basic  powers.  Where  power  is  produced 
there  must  be  an  issue  for  it.  Power  must  perforce 
express  itself  in  some  form.  Electricity  produced  in 
the  skies  comes  down  in  an  often  disastrous  manner. 
Electricity,  produced  aimfully,  runs  our  railroads; 
just  so  the  enormous  power  produced  by  humanity 
must  be  used  aimfully,  in  a  constructive  way  or  it 
will  burst  into  insurrections,  revolutions  and  wars. 

Hitherto  we  have  been  guided  by  those  bottomless 
sciences  having  only  mythological  ideas  of  power — 
by  ideas  moulded  by  personal  ambitions,  personal 
interests,  or  downright  ignorance.  Periodically  we 
have  had  all  the  evils  of  the  lack  of  a  common  aim 
and  scientific  guidance.  Power  has  been  held  by  the 
"God-given"  or  the  "cleverest";  seldom  has  the 
power  been  given  to  the  "fittest"  in  the  sense  of  the 
most  capable  "to  do."  Those  who  speak  of  the 
"survival  of  the  fittest,"  as  in  the  Darwinian  theory 
of  animals,  bark  an  animal  language.  This  rule, 
being  natural  only  in  the  life  of  plants  and  animals 

139 


140  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

and  appropriate  only  to  the  lower  forms  of  physical 
life,  cannot,  except  with  profound  change  of  mean- 
ing, be  applied  to  the  time-binding  class  of  life,  with- 
out disaster. 

The  modern  vast  accumulation  of  wealth  for  pri- 
vate purposes,  justifies  itself  by  using  the  argument 
of  the  "survival  of  the  fittest."  Very  well,  where 
there  is  a  "survival,"  there  must  be  victims;  where 
there  are  victims,  there  has  been  fighting.  Is  this 
what  the  users  of  this  argument  mean?  Like  the 
Kaiser,  they  talk  peace  and  make  war.  This  method 
of  doing  things  is  not  in  any  way  new.  The  world 
has  been  accustomed  to  it  for  a  very  long  while. 

Personally  I  believe  that  most  of  the  masters  of 
speculative  semi-sciences,  such  as  economics,  law, 
ethics,  politics  and  government  are  honest  in  their 
beliefs  and  speculations.  Simply  the  right  man  be- 
lieves in  the  wrong  thing;  if  shown  the  right  way 
out  of  the  mess  he  will  cease  to  hamper  progress;  he 
will  be  of  the  greatest  value  to  the  new  world  built 
by  Human  Engineers,  where  human  capacities,  ex- 
ponential functions  of  time,  will  operate  naturally; 
where  economy,  law,  ethics,  politics  and  government 
will  be  dynamic,  not  static.  There  is  a  world  of  dif- 
ference between  these  two  words. 

The  immediate  object  of  this  writing  is  to  show 
the  way  to  directing  the  time-binding  powers  of  man- 
kind for  the  benefit  of  all.  Human  technology,  as  an 


SURVIVAL  OF  THE  FITTEST  141 

art  and  science,  does  not  yet  exist;  some  basic  prin- 
ciples were  required  as  a  foundation  for  such  a 
science.  Especially  was  it  necessary  to  establish  a 
human  standard,  and  thus  make  it  certain  and  clear 
that  "space-binders" — the  members  of  the  animal 
world — are  "outside  of  the  human  law" — outside 
the  natural  laws  for  the  human  class  of  life. 

Present  civilization  is  a  very  complicated  affair; 
although  many  of  our  social  problems  are  very  badly 
managed,  sudden  changes  could  not  be  made  without 
endangering  the  welfare  and  life  of  all  classes  of 
society.  In  the  meantime,  changes  must  be  made 
because  the  world  can  not  proceed  much  longer  under 
pre-war  conditions ;  they  have  been  too  well  exposed 
by  facts  for  humanity  to  allow  itself  to  be  blindly 
led  again. 

In  the  World  War  humanity  passed  through  a 
tremendous  trial  and  for  those  years  was  under  the 
strain  of  an  extensive  mobilization  campaign.  The 
necessity  of  increasing  power  was  manifest;  the  im- 
portance of  a  common  base  or  aim  became  equally 
manifest.  In  this  case  the  base,  the  common  aim, 
was  found  in  "war  patriotism."  This  common  base 
enabled  all  the  states  to  add  up  individual  powers 
and  build  maximum  efficiency  into  a  collective 
power.  This  expression  is  used,  not  only  as  a  social 
truth,  but  as  a  known  mathematical  truth.  Those 
high  ideals,  which  were  given  "Urbi  et  orbi"  in  thou* 


142  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

sands  of  speeches  and  in  millions  of  propaganda 
papers,  had  a  much  greater  educational  importance 
and  influence  than  most  people  are  aware  of.  People 
have  been  awakened  and  have  acquired  the  taste  for 
those  higher  purposes  which  in  the  past  were  avail- 
able only  for  the  few. 

Many  old  worn-out  idols,  ideas  and  ideals  have 
fallen;  but  what  is  going  to  take  their  place?  We 
witness  an  unrest  which  will  not  be  eliminated  until 
something  essential  is  done  to  adjust  it.  Calm  often 
betokens  a  coming  storm.  The  coming  storm  is  not 
the  work  of  any  "bad  man,"  but  it  is  the  inevitable 
consequence  of  a  "bad  system."  It  is  dangerous 
to  hide  our  heads  in  the  sand,  like  an  ostrich,  and 
fancy  we  are  safe. 

"Survival  of  the  fittest"  in  the  commonly  used  ani- 
mal sense  is  not  a  theory  or  principle  for  a  "time- 
binding"  being.  This  theory  is  only  for  the  physical 
bodies  of  animals;  its  effect  upon  humanity  is  sin- 
ister and  degrading  (see  App.  II).  We  see  the  prin- 
ciple at  work  all  about  us  in  criminal  exploitation  and 
profiteering.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  ages-long  ap- 
plication of  this  animal  principle  to  human  affairs 
has  degraded  the  whole  human  morale  in  an  incon- 
ceivably far-reaching  way.  Personal  greed  and  sel- 
fishness are  brazenly  owned  as  principles  of  conduct. 
We  shrug  our  shoulders  in  acquiescence  and  proclaim 
greed  and  selfishness  to  be  the  very  core  of  human 


SURVIVAL  OF  THE  FITTEST  143 

nature,  take  it  all  for  granted,  and  let  it  pass  at  that. 
We  have  gone  so  far  in  our  degradation  that  the 
prophet  of  capitalistic  principles,  Adam  Smith,  in  his 
famous  Wealth  of  Nations,  arrives  at  the  laws  of 
wealth,  not  from  the  phenomena  of  wealth  nor  from 
statistical  statements,  but  from  the  phenomena  of 
selfishness — a  fact  which  shows  how  far-reaching  in 
its  dire  influence  upon  all  humanity  is  the  theory  that 
human  beings  are  "animals."  Of  course  the  effect 
is  very  disastrous.  The  preceding  chapters  have 
shown  that  the  theory  is  false;  it  is  false,  not  only 
because  of  its  unhappy  effects,  but  it  belies  the  char- 
acteristic nature  of  man.  Human  nature,  this  time- 
binding  power,  not  only  has  the  peculiar  capacity 
for  perpetual  progress,  but  it  has,  over  and  above 
all  animal  propensities,  certain  qualities  constituting 
it  a  distinctive  dimension  or  type  of  life.  Not  only 
our  whole  collective  life  proves  a  love  for  higher 
ideals,  but  even  our  dead  give  us  the  rich  heritage, 
material  and  spiritual,  of  all  their  toils.  There  is 
nothing  mystical  about  it;  to  call  SUCH  a  class  a 
naturally  selfish  class  is  not  only  nonsensical  but 
monstrous. 

This  capacity  for  higher  ideals  does  not  originate 
in  some  "jwprniatural"  outside  factor;  it  is  not  of 
extraneous  origin,  it  is  the  expression  of  the  time- 
binding  element  which  we  inherently  possess,  inde- 
pendently of  our  "will" ;  it  is  an  inborn  capacity — a 


144  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

gift  of  nature.  We  simply  are  made  this  way  and 
not  in  any  other.  There  is  indeed  a  fine  sense  in 
which  we  can,  if  we  choose,  apply  the  expression — 
survival  of  the  fittest — to  the  activity  of  the  time- 
binding  energies  of  man.  Having  the  peculiar  ca- 
pacity to  survive  in  our  deeds,  we  have  an  inclina- 
tion to  use  it  and  we  survive  in  the  deeds  of  our 
creation;  and  so  there  is  brought  about  the  "survival 
in  time"  of  higher  and  higher  ideals.  The  moment 
we  consider  Man  in  his  proper  dimension — active 
in  TIME — these  things  become  simple,  stupendous, 
and  beautiful. 

"Note  the  radical  character  of  the  transformation  to  be 
effected.  The  world  shall  no  longer  be  beheld  as  an  alien 
thing,  beheld  by  eyes  that  are  not  its  own.  Conception  of 
the  whole  and  by  the  whole  shall  embrace  us  as  part,  really, 
literally,  consciously,  as  the  latest  term,  it  may  be,  of  an 
advancing  sequence  of  developments,  as  occupying  the  high- 
est rank  perhaps  in  the  ever-ascending  hierarchy  of  being, 
but,  at  all  events,  as  emerged  and  still  emerging  natura 
naturata  from  some  propensive  source  within.  I  grant  that 
the  change  in  point  of  view  is  hard  to  make — old  habits, 
like  walls  of  rock,  tending  to  confine  the  tides  of  conscious- 
ness within  their  accustomed  channels — but  it  can  be  made 
and,  by  assiduous  effort,  in  the  course  of  time,  maintained. 
Suppose  it  done.  By  that  reunion,  the  whole  regains,  while 
the  part  retains,  the  consciousness  the  latter  purloined.  .  .  . 
In  the  whole  universe  of  events,  none  is  more  wonderful 
than  the  birth  of  wonder,  none  more  curious  than  the 
nascence  of  curiosity  itself,  nothing  to  compare  with  the 
dawning  of  consciousness  in  the  ancient  dark  and  the  gradual 


SURVIVAL  OF  THE  FITTEST  145 

extension  of  psychic  life  and  illumination  throughout  a  cos- 
mos that  before  had  only  been.  An  eternity  of  blindly  act- 
ing, transforming,  unconscious  existence,  assuming  at  length, 
through  the  birth  of  sense  and  intellect,  without  loss  or  break 
of  continuity,  the  abiding  form  of  fleeting  time."  (C.  J. 
Keyser,  k>c.  cit.) 

It  must  be  emphasized  that  the  development  of 
higher  ideals  is  due  to  the  natural  capacity  of  hu- 
manity; the  impulse  is  simply  time-binding  impulse. 
As  we  have  seen,  by  analysing  the  functions  of  the 
different  classes  of  life,  every  class  of  life  has  an 
impulse  to  exercise  its  peculiar  capacity  or  function. 
Nitrogen  resists  compound  combinations  and  if 
found  in  such  combinations  it  breaks  away  as  quickly 
as  ever  it  can.  Birds  have  wings — they  fly.  Animals 
have  feet — they  run.  Man  has  the  capacity  of  time- 
binding — he  binds  time.  It  does  not  matter  whether 
we  understand  the  very  "essence"  of  the  phenomenon 
or  not,  any  more  than  we  understand  the  "essence" 
of  electricity  or  any  other  "essence."  Life  shows 
that  man  has  time-binding  capacity  as  a  natural  gift 
and  is  naturally  impelled  to  use  it.  One  of  the  best 
examples  is  procreation.  Conception  is  a  com- 
pletely incomprehensible  phenomenon  in  its  "es- 
sence," nevertheless,  having  the  capacity  to  procreate 
we  use  it  without  bothering  about  its  "essence." 
Indeed  neither  life  nor  science  bothers  about  "es- 
sences"— they  leave  "essences"  to  metaphysics, 
which  is  neither  life  nor  science.  It  is  sufficient  for 


146  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

our  purpose  that  idealization  is  in  fact  a  natural 
process  of  time-binding  human  energy.  And  how- 
ever imperfect  ethics  has  been  owing  to  the  preva- 
lence of  animal  standards,  such  merits  as  our  ethics 
has  had  witness  to  the  natural  presence  of  ^idealiza- 
tion" in  time-binding  human  life. 

"It  is  thus  evident  that  ideals  are  not  things  to  gush  over 
or  to  sigh  and  sentimentalize  about ;  they  are  not  what  would 
be  left  if  that  which  is  hard  in  reality  were  taken  away; 
ideals  are  themselves  the  very  flint  of  reality,  beautiful  no 
doubt  and  precious,  without  which  there  would  be  neither 
dignity  nor  hope  nor  light ;  but  their  aspect  is  not  sentimental 
and  soft ;  it  is  hard,  cold,  intellectual,  logical,  austere.  Ideali- 
zation consists  in  the  conception  or  the  intuition  of  ideals  and 
in  the  pursuit  of  them.  And  ideals,  I  have  said,  are  of  two 
kinds.  Let  us  make  the  distinction  clearer.  Every  sort  of 
human  activity — shoeing  horses,  abdominal  surgery,  or  paint- 
ing profiles — admits  of  a  peculiar  type  of  excellence.  No  sort 
of  activity  can  escape  from  its  own  type  but  within  its  type 
it  admits  of  indefinite  improvement.  For  each  type  there  is 
an  ideal — a  dream  of  perfection — an  unattainable  limit  of 
an  endless  sequence  of  potential  ameliorations  within  the  type 
and  on  its  level.  The  dreams  of  such  unattainable  perfec- 
tions are  as  countless  as  the  types  of  excellence  to  which  they 
respectively  belong  and  they  together  constitute  the  familiar 
world  of  our  human  ideals.  To  share  in  it — to  feel  the  lure 
of  perfection  in  one  or  more  types  of  excellence,  however 
lowly — is  to  be  human;  not  to  feel  it  is  to  be  sub-human. 
But  this  common  kind  of  idealization,  though  it  is  very  im- 
portant and  very  precious,  does  not  produce  the  great  events 
in  the  life  of  mankind.  These  are  produced  by  the  kind  of 
idealization  that  corresponds  to  what  we  have  called  in  the 
mathematical  prototype,  limit-begotten  generalization — a  kind 


STRVTVAL  OF  THE  FITTEST  147 

of  idealization  that  is  peculiar  to  creative  genius  and  that, 
not  content  to  pursue  ideals  within  established  types  of  excel- 
lences, creates  new  types  thereof  in  science,  in  art,  in  phil- 
osophy, in  letters,  in  ethics,  in  education,  in  social  order,  in 
all  the  fields  and  forms  of  the  spiritual  life  of  man."  (Quoted 
from  the  manuscript  of  the  forthcoming  book,  Mathematical 
Philosophy,  by  Cassius  J.  Keyser.) 

"Survival  of  the  fittest"  has  a  different  form  for 
different  classes  of  life.  Applying  animal  standards 
to  time-binding  beings  is  like  applying  inches  to 
measuring  weight.  As  a  matter  or  fact,  we  cannot 
raise  one  class  to  a  higher  class,  unless  we  add  an 
entirely  new  function  to  the  former;  we  can  only 
improve  their  lower  status;  but  if  we  apply  the 
reverse  method,  we  can  degrade  human  standards 
to  animal  standards. 

Animal  standards  belong  to  a  class  of  life  whose 
capacity  is  not  an  exponential  function  of  Time. 
There  is  nothing  theological  or  sentimental  in  this 
fact;  it  is  a  purely  mathematical  truth. 

It  is  fatal  to  apply  the  "survival  of  the  fittest" 
theory  in  the  same  sense  to  two  radically  different 
classes  of  life.  The  "survival  of  the  fittest"  for  ani- 
mals— for  space-binders — is  survival  in  space,  which 
means  fighting  and  other  brutal  forms  of  struggle; 
on  the  other  hand,  "survival  of  the  fittest"  for 
human  beings  as  such — that  is,  for  time-binders — is 
survival  in  time,  which  means  intellectual  or  spiritual 
competition,  struggle  for  excellence,  for  making  the 


148  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

best  survive.  The-fittest-in-time — those  who  make 
the  best  survive — are  those  who  do  the  most  in  pro- 
ducing values  for  all  mankind  including  posterity. 
This  is  the  scientific  base  for  natural  ethics,  and 
ethics  from  which  there  can  be  no  side-stepping,  or 
escape. 

Therefore  time-binders  can  not  use  "animal"  logic 
without  degrading  themselves  from  their  proper 
status  as  human  beings — their  status  as  established 
by  nature.  "Animal"  logic  leads  to  "animal"  ethics 
and  "animal"  economics;  it  leads  inevitably  to 
a  brutalized  industrial  system  in  which  cunning 
contrives  to  rob  the  living  of  the  fruit  of  the 
dead. 

Human  logic  points  to  human  ethics  and  human 
economics;  it  will  lead  to  a  humanized  industrial  sys- 
tem in  which  competition  will  be  competition  in  sci- 
ence, in  art,  in  justice :  a  competition  and  struggle  for 
the  attainment  of  excellence  in  human  life.  The  time- 
binding  capacity,  which  manifests  itself  in  drawing 
from  the  PAST,  through  the  PRESENT  for  the  FUTURE 
gives  human  beings  the  means  of  attaining  a  precious 
kind  of  immortality;  it  enables  them  to  fulfill  the 
law  of  their  own  class  of  life  and  to  survive  ever- 
lastingly in  the  fruits  of  their  toil,  a  perpetual  bless- 
ing to  endless  generations  of  the  children  of  men. 
This  is  the  truth  we  instinctively  recognize  when  we 
call  a  great  man  "immortal."  We  mean  that  he  has 


SURVIVAL  OF  THE  FITTEST  149 

done  deeds  that  survive  in  time  for  the  perpetual 
weal  of  mankind. 

Human  logic — mathematical  logic,  the  logic  natu- 
ral for  man — will  thus  show  us  that  "gocd"  and 
"just"  and  "right"  are  to  have  their  significance 
defined  and  understood  entirely  in  terms  of  human 
nature.  Human  nature — not  animal  nature — is  to 
be  the  basis  and  guide  of  Human  Engineering.  Thus 
based  and  guided,  Human  Engineering  will  eliminate 
"wild-cat  schemers,"  gamblers  and  "politicians."  It 
will  put  an  end  to  industrial  violence,  strikes,  insur- 
rections, war  and  revolutions. 

The  present  system  of  social  life  is  largely  built 
upon  misconceptions  or  misrepresentations.  For  all 
work  we  need  the  human  brain,  the  human  time-bind- 
ing power,  yet  we  continue  to  call  it  "hand-labor" 
and  treat  it  as  such.  Even  in  mechanical  science, 
in  the  use  of  the  term  "horse-power,"  we  are  incor- 
rect in  this  expression.  How  does  this  "horse"  look 
in  reality?  Let  us  analyse  this  "horse."  All  science, 
all  mechanical  appliances  have  been  produced  by 
"man"  and  man  alone.  Everything  we  possess  is  the 
production  of  either  dead  men's  or  living  men's 
work.  The  enslavement  of  the  solar  man-power  is 
purely  a  human  invention  in  theory  and  practice. 
Everything  we  have  is  evidently  therefore  a  time- 
binding  product.  What  perfect  nonsense  to  call  a 
purely  human  achievement  the  equivalent  of  so  much 


150  MANHOOD  or  HUMANITY 

"horse-power"  !  Of  course  it  does  not  matter  math- 
ematically what  name  we  give  to  a  unit  of  power; 
we  may  call  it  a  Zeus  or  a  Zebra ;  but  there  is  a  very 
vicious  implication  in  using  the  name  of  an  animal 
to  denote  a  purely  human  product.  Everything  in 
our  civilization  was  produced  by  MAN;  it  seems  only 
reasonable  that  this  unit  of  power  which  is  the  direct 
product  of  Man's  work,  should  be  correctly  named 
after  him.  The  educational  effect  would  be  whole- 
some and  tremendous.  The  human  value  in  work 
would  be  thus  emphasized  again  and  again,  and  re- 
spect for  human  work  would  be  taught,  from  the 
beginning  in  the  schools.  This  "horse-power"  unit 
causes  us  to  forget  the  human  part  in  it  and  it  de- 
grades human  work  to  the  level  of  a  commodity. 
This  is  an  example  of  the  degrading  influence  of 
wrong  conceptions  and  wrong  language.  I  said 
"educational"  because  even  our  subconscious  mind  is 
affected  by  this.  (See  App.  II.) 

Human  Engineering  will  not  interfere  with  any 
scientific  research;  on  the  contrary,  it  will  promote 
it  in  many  ways.  Grown-ups,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  will 
stop  the  nonsense  of  intermixing  dimensions,  for 
which  we  chastise  children.  It  is  the  same  kind  of 
blundering  as  when  we  intermix  phenomena — meas- 
uring "God"  by  human  standards,  or  human  beings 
by  animal  standards.  The  relationship,  if  any,  be- 
tween these  phenomena  or  the  overlapping  of  dif- 


SURVIVAL  OF  THE  FITTEST  151 

ferent  classes,  is  interesting  and  important;  but  in 
studying  such  relationships  of  classes,  it  is  fatal  to 
mix  the  classes;  for  example,  if  we  are  studying  the 
relations  between  surfaces  and  solids,  it  is  fatal  to 
mistake  solids  for  surfaces ;  just  so,  too,  if  we  stupidly 
confuse  humans  with  animals. 

In  the  reality  of  life,  we  are  interested  only  in  the 
values  of  the  function  of  the  phenomena  by  them- 
selves and  to  arrive  at  right  conclusions  we  have  to 
use  units  appropriate  to  the  phenomena.  The  inter- 
mixing of  units  gives  us  a  wrong  conception  of  the 
values  of  each  phenomenon;  the  results  of  our  cal- 
culations are  wrong  and  the  outcome  is  a  miscon- 
ception of  the  process  of  human  life.  The  fact  once 
realized,  we  will  cease  applying  animal  measures  to 
man;  even  theology  will  abandon  the  monstrous 
habit. 

Animal  units  and  standards  are  to  be  applied  to 
animals,  human  standards  to  man,  "Divine"  stand- 
ards to  "God." 

In  the  dark  ages,  with  the  complete  innocence  or 
misunderstanding  of  science,  the  "why"  of  things  was 
explained  by  the  "who"  of  things ;  therein  investiga- 
tion culminated;  man  was  regarded  as  homo  sapiens 
and  homo  sapiens  =  animal  X  spark  of  jwpmiatu- 
ral;  this  monstrous  formula  was  accepted  as  a  final 
truth — as  an  answer  to  the  question:  What  is  Man? 
This  type  of  answer  became  in  the  hands  of  church 


152  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

and  state   a   powerful   instrument  for  keeping  the 
people  in  subjection. 

The  tendency  of  the  masses  to  let  others  think  for 
them  is  not  really  a  natural  characteristic — quite  the 
opposite.  The  habit  of  not  thinking  for  one's  self 
is  the  result  of  thousands  of  years  of  subjection. 
Those  in  authority,  in  general,  used  their  ingenuity 
to  keep  the  people  from  thinking.  The  most  vital 
reason  why  many  humans  appear  to  be,  and  are  often 
called,  "stupid,"  is  that  they  have  been  spoken  to  in 
a  language  of  speculation  which  they  instinctively 
dislike  and  distrust;  thus  there  arose  the  proverb  that 
speech  was  made  to  conceal  the  truth.  It  is  no  won- 
der that  they  appear  "stupid,"  the  wonder  is  that 
they  are  not  more  "stupid."  The  truth  is  that  they 
will  be  found  to  be  far  less  stupid  when  addressed 
in  the  natural  language  of  ascertainable  fact.  My 
whole  theory  is  based  upon,  and  is  in  harmony  with, 
the  natural  feelings  of  man.  The  conceptions  I  in- 
troduce are  based  on  human  nature.  Natural  lan- 
guage— so  different  from  the  speech  of  metaphysical 
speculation — will  lead  to  mutual  understanding  and 
the  disappearance  of  warring  factions. 

"Discrimination,  as  the  proverb  rightly  teaches,  is  the  be- 
ginning of  mind.  The  first  psychic  product  of  that  initial 
psychic  act  is  numerical:  to  discriminate  is  to  produce  two, 
the  simplest  possible  example  of  multiplicity.  The  dis- 
covery, or  better  the  invention,  better  still  the  production, 
best  of  all  the  creation,  of  multiplicity  with  its  correlate  of 


SURVIVAL  OF  THE  FITTEST  153 

number,  is,  therefore,  the  most  primitive  achievement  or  man- 
ifestation of  mind.  .  .  .  Let  us,  then,  trust  the  arithmetic 
instinct  as  fundamental  and,  for  instruments  of  thought  that 
shall  not  fail,  repair  at  once  to  the  domain  of  number."  (C. 
J.  Keyser,  Loc.  Cit.) 

The  thinking  few  knew  the  power  there  is  in 
"thinking";  they  wanted  to  have  it  and  to  keep  the 
advantage  of  it  for  themselves;  witness  the  late  intro- 
duction of  public  schools.  Belief  in  the  inferiority  of 
the  masses  became  the  unwritten  law  of  the  "privi- 
leged classes";  it  was  forced  upon,  rubbed  into,  the 
subconscious  mind  of  the  masses  by  church  and  state 
alike,  and  was  humbly  and  dumbly  accepted  by  the 
"lower  orders"  as  their  "destiny."  Ignorance  was 
proclaimed  as  a  bliss. 

As  time  went  on,  this  "coefficient  of  ignorance" 
became  so  useful  to  some  people  and  some  classes  of 
people  that  no  effort  was  spared  to  keep  the  world 
in  ignorance.  It  gave  a  legalistic  excuse  to  imprison, 
burn  and  hang  people  for  expressing  an  opinion 
which  the  ruling  classes  did  not  like.  The  elimina- 
tion from  church,  from  school,  from  universities,  of 
any  teacher,  any  professor  or  any  minister  who  dared 
to  exemplify  or  encourage  fearless  investigation  and 
freedom  of  speech  became  very  common.  It  is  less 
common  in  our  generation,  but  there  remains  much 
to  win  in  the  way  of  freedom. 

Freedom,  rightly  understood,  is  the  aim  of  Human 


i$4  MANHOOD  or  HUMANITY 

Engineering.  But  freedom  is  not  license,  it  is  not 
licentiousness.  Freedom  consists  in  lawful  living — 
in  living  in  accord  with  the  laws  of  human  nature — 
in  accord  with  the  natural  laws  of  Man.  A  plant 
is  free  when  it  is  not  prevented  from  living  and 
growing  according  to  the  natural  laws  of  plant  life ; 
an  animal  is  free  when  it  is  not  prevented  from  liv- 
ing according  to  the  natural  laws  of  animal  life; 
human  beings  are  free  when  and  only  when  they  are 
not  prevented  from  living  in  accord  with  the  natural 
laws  of  human  life.  I  say  "when  not  prevented," 
for  human  beings  will  live  naturally  and,  therefore, 
in  freedom,  when  they  are  not  prevented  from  thus 
living  by  ignorance  of  what  human  nature  is  and  by 
artificial  social  systems  established,  maintained,  and 
protected  by  such  ignorance.  Human  freedom  con- 
sists in  exercising  the  time-binding  energies  of  man 
in  accordance  with  the  natural  laws  of  such  natural 
energies.  Human  freedom  is  thus  the  aim  of  Human 
Engineering  because  Human  Engineering  is  to  be 
the  science  of  human  nature  and  the  art  of  conduct- 
ing human  affairs  in  accordance  with  the  laws  of 
human  nature.  Survival  of  the  fittest,  where  fittest 
means  strongest,  is  a  natural  law  for  brutes,  for  ani- 
mals, for  the  class  of  mere  space-binders.  Survival 
of  the  fittest,  where  fittest  means  best  in  science  and 
art  and  wisdom,  is  a  natural  law  for  mankind,  the 
time-binding  class  of  life. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
ELEMENTS  OF  POWER 

TN  the  World  War  Germany  displayed  tremen- 
dous power.  Restraining  our  emotions  as  much 
as  possible,  let  us  endeavor  to  analyse  that  power 
with  mathematical  dispassionateness. 

Why  did  Germany  display  more  power  than  any 
other  single  nation?  Because  in  the  establishment  of 
her  "ethics,"  her  political  system,  and  her  economic 
structure,  Germany  availed  herself,  in  larger  meas- 
ure than  any  other  nation,  of  scientific  achievements 
and  scientific  methods.  It  is  a  very  common,  very 
erroneous,  and  very  harmful  belief  that  war  was  cre- 
ated solely  by  a  "war-lord."  Every  idea  or  move- 
ment doubtless  originates  with  somebody  but  back  of 
such  "originations"  or  initiations  there  are  favoring 
conditions,  forces  and  impulsions.  The  stage  is  set 
by  life  and  the  ages;  the  actor  enters  and  the  show 
begins.  In  the  instance  in  question,  the  stage  was 
set  by  our  whole  modern  system  of  civilization.  The 
war  lords  were  the  "Deus  ex  machina" — the  show 
was  a  real  one — a  tragedy. 

The  true  origin  of  this  war  must  be  looked  for 

155 


156  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

in  the  economic  field.  Our  economic  system  is  the 
very  complicated  result  of  all  our  creeds,  philoso- 
phies and  social  customs.  It  is  therefore  impossible 
to  understand  the  working  of  the  economic  forces 
without  understanding  the  foundation  upon  which 
this  system  of  forces  is  based.  A  short  list  of  works 
on  the  subject  is  given  at  the  end  of  this  book.  A 
plain  statement  here  will  be  enough. 

Germany  was  committed  to  a  policy  of  indefinite 
industrial  expansion.  This  artificial  expansion  had 
reached  its  limits.  Germany  was  on  the  verge  of 
bankruptcy.  Only  a  victorious  war  could  avoid  a 
national  catastrophe;  she  played  her  last  card,  and 
lost  despite  her  gigantic  power,  the  greatest  ever 
displayed  by  any  nation.  The  leading  European 
states  were  not  able  to  overpower  her  for  a  long 
time.  This  writing  is  not  intended  as  an  apology 
for  Germany,  much  less  to  praise  her  or  her  war 
lords.  German  purposes  were  nationally  narrow 
and  nationally  selfish  to  the  root;  her  methods  were 
inhuman  but  Germany  displayed  power;  and  without 
the  understanding  of  power,  Human  Engineering  is 
impossible. 

It  is  possibly  a  fault  of  the  writer's  military  train- 
ing, but  it  seems  to  him  that  the  "General  Staff" 
point  of  view  has  as  much  claim  to  consideration  as 
any  other  among  the  many  different  interpretations 
of  history — perhaps  it  has  more.  It  is  not  the  pri- 


ELEMENTS  OF  POWER  157 

mary  aim  of  the  general  staff  to  "fight,"  very  far 
from  it.  Their  primary  aim  is  "victory"  and  all  the 
better  if  victory  be  possible  without  a  fight.  Strategy, 
brain-work,  intelligence,  knowledge  of  facts — these 
are  the  chief  weapons;  brutal  fighting  is  only  a  last 
resort.  It  is  highly  important  to  bear  that  in  mind. 
Soldiers  and  engineers  do  not  argue — they  act.  Ger- 
many affords  the  first  example  of  a  philosophy  or  a 
society  having  for  its  main  purpose  the  generating 
of  power  to  "do  things."  It  seems  only  reasonable 
and  intelligent  to  analyse  the  history  of  the  war 
from  the  engineer's  point  of  view,  which,  in  this  case, 
happens  to  coincide  with  the  military  point  of  view. 
It  must  be  clearly  understood  that  the  modern  gen- 
eral staff,  or  military,  point  of  view  has  very  little  or 
nothing  to  do  with  the  romance  or  poetry  of  war. 
War  to-day  is  a  grim  business — but  "business"  before 
all  else.  It  has  to  mobilize  all  the  resources  of  a 
nation  and  generate  power  to  the  limit  of  its 
capacity.  The  conduct  of  war  to-day  is  a  techno- 
logical affair — its  methods  have  to  be  engineering 
methods.  To  crush  an  obstacle,  there  is  need  of  a 
giant  hammer,  and  the  more  mass  that  can  be  given 
it  and  the  greater  the  force  put  behind  it,  the  more 
deadly  will  be  the  blow.  Prior  to  the  World  War 
technology  had  not  been  mobilized  on  so  vast  a  scale 
nor  confronted  with  a  task  so  gigantic.  Mobilized 
technology  has  revealed  and  demonstrated  the  fact 


158  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

that  it  is  possible  to  generate  almost  unlimited  power 
and  has  shown  the  way  to  do  it;  at  the  same  time 
it  has  demonstrated  the  measureless  potency  of  engi- 
neering and  our  utter  helplessness  without  it.  Tech- 
nology is  comparatively  a  new  science;  by  some  it  is 
called  a  "semi-science"  because  it  deals  primarily 
with  the  application  of  science  to  practical  issues. 
But  when  it  became  necessary  "to  do  things,"  an 
engineer  had  to  be  called;  the  general  staff  had  to 
adopt  his  view,  and  all  other  practices  and  traditions 
were  bent  to  his  ideas. 

I  have  already  repeatedly  pointed  out  that  the 
progress  of  technology  proceeds  according  to  a  law 
like  that  of  a  rapidly  increasing  geometrical  progres- 
sion, and  I  have  stressed  the  danger  of  inattention 
to  any  phenomena,  force  or  movement  that  conforms 
to  such  a  law.  We  have  only  to  recollect  the  story 
of  the  simple  but  very  greedy  farmer  who  was  very 
happy  to  make  a  contract  with  a  laborer  for  a 
month's  work,  paying  him  only  one  cent  the  first  day, 
twice  as  much  the  second,  twice  for  the  third,  and  so 
on  to  the  end.  Behold!  The  bill  for  the  month  ran 
into  millions  of  dollars  and  the  farmer  was  ruined. 
Such  is  the  deadly  secret  of  the  geometrical  progres- 
sion. Violent  readjustments  await  any  society  whose 
ethics,  jurisprudence  and  the  like  do  not  keep  pace 
with  the  developments  of  engineering. 

Engineers  are  the  wizards  who,  using  the  results 


ELEMENTS  OF  POWER  159 

of  scientific  research,  can  subjugate  or  release  the 
concealed  powers  of  nature.  The  supreme  factor  is 
the  use  of  the  mind — the  exponential  function  of  time 
— the  time-binding  energy  of  man.  From  that  we 
have  to  take  our  start  because  that  is  the  source  of 
human  power. 

The  German  philosophy,  as  a  whole,  has  its  defi- 
nite place  in  the  history  of  philosophy;  and  the  first 
thing  to  consider  are  those  philosophic  writers  who 
directly  and  indirectly  have  contributed  to  the  build- 
ing up  of  German  power.  Hegel  greatly  affected  the 
building  up  of  the  German  mind — strange  as  it  may 
seem;  but  Hegel  was  greatly  under  the  influence  of 
the  work  of  Fichte,  and  Fichte  in  turn  under  that  of 
Spinoza.  All  of  them  were,  in  a  way,  mathema- 
ticians in  their  methods  and  philosophy,  as  much  as 
they  could  be  in  their  time.  I  said  "strange,"  be- 
cause it  is  significant  that  the  mathematical  part  of 
their  philosophy  was  just  the  part  which  built  up  the 
German  power.  But  if  we  look  into  it,  it  is  not 
strange. 

It  had  to  be  so,  because  mathematical  and  me- 
chanical methods  are  the  only  ones  by  which  power 
can  be  understood  and  built.  Hegel  in  1805  lectured 
on  history  of  philosophy,  pure  mathematics  and  nat- 
ural law.  It  would  be  hard  to  find  a  better  combi- 
nation for  a  philosophy  of  power.  That  is  precisely 
what  this  philosophy  was.  It  influenced  not  only  Ger- 


160  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

man  philosophy  but  even  German  theology,  and 
through  these  channels  it  sank  deep  into  the  national 
consciousness.  It  affected  every  phase  of  life.  An 
immense  cult  of  disciples  arose.  Each  one  added 
something  to  that  philosophy  of  power.  One  of  the 
most  brilliant  representatives  of  this  movement  is 
Professor  Oswald,  who  in  his  Monist  Sermons  gave 
the  famous  advice:  "Do  not  waste  energy  but  give  it 
value."  The  German  understanding  of  the  great 
value  of  technology  directly  applied  that  principle  to 
their  philosophy,  law,  ethics,  politics,  and  so  on. 

With  increase  of  population,  the  problem  o  he 
State  becomes  more  and  more  pressing.  There  are 
many  theories  about  the  state.  For  the  purpose  of 
the  moment  it  is  important  to  realize  that  a  state 
is  the  governing  center  of  an  accumulation  of  human 
beings — of  time-binding  powers — increasing  expo- 
nential functions  of  time.  These  powers,  though 
the  same  in  kind,  differ  in  degree  and  in  respect  of 
individuality.  If  they  are  to  be  united  so  as  to 
constitute  a  whole,  they  must  be  given  a  common 
aim;  they  must,  so  to  speak,  be  reduced  to  a  com- 
mon base;  if  they  be  respectively  Xm,  Yn,  Zp,  and 
so  on,  we  can  not  unite  them  and  compute  the  whole 
by  adding  the  exponents;  but  if  we  give  them  a  com- 
mon base — a  common  aim  or  purpose — then  we  can 
readily  represent  the  magnitudes  of  the  whole  con- 
stituted by  them;  if  we  take  X  to  be  their  common 


ELEMENTS  OF  POWER  161 

aim  or  base,  then,  if  Y  =  aX,  Z=bX,  and  so  on,  we 
shall  have: 

Xn-Yn-Zp  .  .  .    =  Xm-an-Xn-bp'Xv  .  .  . 
=  (an-bp  .  .  ,)Xm+n+p  .  .  . 

The  last  expression,  where  the  parenthetical  coeffi- 
cient is  the  product  of  individualities,  serves  to 
represent  the  united  powers  of  all  in  t?rms  of  X9 
the  common  base,  purpose  or  aim. 

Let  us  look  at  the  matter  in  another  way.  One 
mechanical  "horse-power"  is  less  than  the  power  of 
one  living  horse.  One  living  horse  can  do  more 
work  than  one  mechanical  horse-power,  but  in  using 
more  than  one  living  horse  at  one  time  we  get  less 
work  than  by  using  the  same  number  of  mechanical 
horse-powers;  the  reason  is  very  obvious.  The  me- 
chanical horse-powers  are  the  same  in  kind,  equal, 
and  constant,  but  living  horses  differ  in  character, 
they  are  not  equal,  and  each  one  is  a  variable.  Hence 
mechanical  horse-powers  can  be  added  or  multiplied 
arithmetically,  but  the  powers  of  living  horses  can 
not,  except  very  roughly;  the  living  horses  of  a  team 
interfere  with  each  other;  they  do  not  pull  together, 
as  we  say,  and  energy  is  lost. 

The  German  mathematical  philosophy  or  theory 
of  the  state  did  not  express  itself  in  just  this  way, 
but  the  foregoing  gives  a  clue  to  it.  Germany  united 
the  powers  of  living  men  and  women  and  children: 


1 62  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

it  gave  them  a  common  base;  it  gave  them  one  com- 
mon "social"  mood  and  aim;  they  all  became  con- 
solidated in  service  of  that  which  is  called  the  State; 
they  studied  and  taught  for  the  State;  they  worked, 
lived  and  died  for  the  State :  the  State  was  their  idol, 
King  and  God. 

Such  was  the  aim  of  German  philosophy,  theology, 
law  and  science.  The  establishment  of  ONE  AIM  for 
all  was  the  decisive  factor.  It  is  obvious  that  if  we 
want  to  inspire  60  Millions  of  individuals  with  one 
aim,  this  aim  can  not  be  private  or  personal.  It 
must  be  a  higher  aim,  collective,  general,  impersonal, 
in  some  way  uniting  and  including  all  personal  aims. 
I  shall  call  it  simply  a  collective  aim.  But  collective 
aims  may  differ  profoundly  in  kind;  out  of  personal 
or  egoistic  aims  there  grows  a  series  of  collective 
aims,  increasing  in  generality,  such  as:  (i)  Family 
aims;  (2)  association,  congregation,  club  aims;  (3) 
class  or  professional  aims;  (4)  national  or  race  aims; 
and  finally  (5)  HUMAN  AIMS — the  natural  aims  for 
the  time-binding  class  of  life.  The  fatal  error  of 
German  political  philosophy  was  an  error  of  aim — 
her  aim  was  too  low — too  narrow — the  welfare  of 
a  state  instead  of  the  welfare  of  Humanity. 

In  the  case  of  Germany,  the  national  aim  was 
equivalent  to  the  state  aim.  German  philosophy 
made  the  "state"  equivalent  to  the  "good"  and  equiv- 
alent to  "power."  Of  course  such  philosophy  influ- 


ELEMENTS  OF  POWER  163 

enced  the  whole  national  life  in  every  detail;  in  con- 
sequence Germany  proclaimed  herself  the  first  nation 
of  the  world,  and  this  soon  evolved  into  a  plan  for 
the  conquest  of  the  world.  The  German  General 
Staff  as  an  institution  had,  par  excellence,  as  its  aim 
and  first  object,  "power,"  "concentration  of  power" 
and  "efficiency."  It  took  the  leadership  in  all 
branches  of  life  and  industry.  Militarism  and  indus- 
trialism are  almost  synonymous  from  the  mechanical 
point  of  view;  they  are  both  of  them  power.  They 
both  have  to  use  the  same  scientific  methods  and 
in  the  present  conditions  of  the  world  they  are  de- 
pendent upon  each  other,  for  war  cannot  be  waged 
without  strong  industries.  Here  we  have  to  face 
the  fact  that  geometrically  progressing  industry  can 
not  live  without  new  markets,  which  under  present 
conditions  have  been  largely  acquired,  directly  or  in- 
directly, by  the  power  of  the  army;  and  this  has  been 
the  case  with  Germany.  If  we  curse  Germany  for 
being  a  "military  nation"  we  can,  with  no  less  justice, 
curse  her  for  being  a  completely  "industrialized 
nation."  If  we  add  to  that  her  nationally  selfish 
and  narrow  national  aim,  we  will  readily  understand 
this  "world  peach."  Those  who  have  tasted  it  know 
something  of  its  sweetness. 

There  is  no  need  to  go  into  further  details.  Special 
books  give  us  all  the  data.  That  which  is  of  interest 
is  the  impersonal  fact  that  what  was  the  strength 


164  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

and  power  of  Germany  is  the  best  possible  illustra-, 
tion  we  have  had  of  what  science  and  a  sort  of  math- 
ematical philosophy  are  able  to  accomplish,  even 
when  directed,  not  to  the  welfare  of  Humanity,  but 
to  that  of  a  relatively  small  group  of  people.  The 
above-cited  political  philosophies  had  a  very  pro- 
nounced effect  upon  Marx.  One  of  the  branches  of 
socialism  is  the  so-called  state  socialism.  State  social- 
ists, as  the  name  indicates,  believe  that  the  state  should 
assume  the  most  important  functions  in  society.  It 
is  obvious  that  in  monarchical  countries  where  "god- 
given"  rulers  represent  the  state,  such  a  theory  is  not 
unwelcome,  as  it  gives  the  rulers  an  opportunity  to 
show  a  sort  of  "advanced  liberalism,"  which  serves 
to  strengthen  their  power.  The  astute  Bismarck  can 
not  be  suspected  of  being  a  progressionist  in  the 
modern  sense  but,  being  a  product  of  German  culture 
and  philosophy,  all  his  ideals  were  those  of  a  strong 
state.  He  was  a  proclaimed  advocate  of  state  social- 
ism. Since  1879  at  least,  Bismarck  was  considered 
almost  the  leading  spirit  of  paternal  state  socialism. 
He  was  a  believer  and  promoter  of  the  close  rela- 
tion of  the  state  and  the  railways,  keeping  always 
in  view  a  thorough  nationalization  which  he  finally 
accomplished.  This  fact  eliminated  from  German 
public  life  all  that  phase  of  corruption  which  private 
ownership  of  railroads  brings  in  any  country,  the 
railroad  being  the  very  life  of  any  country. 


ELEMENTS  OF  POWER  165 

To  sum  up:  Germany  applied  the  most  scientific 
methods  to  build  up  her  national  power;  she  under- 
stood the  elements  of  "power,"  for  they  were  dis- 
closed to  her  by  her  science  and  her  philosophy.  She 
applied  technological  methods  in  every  part  of  her 
civil  life,  and  thus  built  her  gigantic  power.  Her 
industrial  life  followed  the  military  way;  her  mili- 
tary strength  was  built  on  industrial  power.  And 
so  the  vicious  circle.  Germany  adopted  a  collective 
aim  instead  of  a  personal  individualistic  aim,  and 
because  of  this  broader  aim,  she  was  able  to  mobilize 
and  to  keep  mobilized  all  her  moral,  political  and 
industrial  forces  for  long  years  before  the  war.  The 
direct  effect  of  this  system  of  continuous  mobilization 
was  over-production.  For  this  she  desperately 
needed  new  markets.  The  cheapest  and  quickest  way 
to  acquire  them,  if  they  were  not  to  be  grabbed  other- 
wise, was  to  conquer  them  by  a  victorious  war.  Her 
plans  progressed  according  to  the  program,  all  except 
the  victory  in  the  battle  fields. 

This  war  was  a  calamity  of  unprecedented  mag- 
nitude for  the  world  and  it  is  our  duty  to  study  it 
dispassionately  and  learn  the  lesson  of  it,  if  we  do 
not  want  to  be  moral  accomplices  of  this  great  mod- 
ern crime,  by  letting  the  world  drift  into  an  even 
worse  catastrophe.  We  have  to  arouse  ourselves 
from  our  inertia  and  go  to  the  bottom  of  this  prob- 
lem and  analyse  it  ruthlessly,  no  matter  whether  the 


1 66  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

analysis  be  pleasant  or  not.  We  must  value  every- 
one of  our  "ten  sacred  dead"  at  least  as  much  as 
we  value  one  rabbit  killed  in  scientific  laboratories, 
and  take  the  lesson  to  heart  or  be  prepared  for  a 
repetition  of  world  slaughter. 

If  Human  Engineering  had  been  established  long 
ago  our  social  system  would  have  been  different,  our 
civilization  would  have  been  much  higher,  this  war 
would  have  been  avoided.  We  do  not  need  to  delude 
ourselves.  The  World  War  was  the  result  of  badly 
balanced  social  and  economic  forces.  The  world 
needs  other  "balances  of  power"  than  such  as  are 
devised  by  lawyers  and  politicians,  by  single-selfish 
or  group-selfish  interests.  Humanity  is  reaching  out 
for  a  science  and  art  of  human  guidance  based  upon 
a  right  understanding  of  human  nature. 


CHAPTER  IX 

MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

TN  a  previous  chapter  I  have  said  that  the  World 
War  marks  the  end  of  one  vast  period  in  the 
life  of  humankind  and  marks  the  beginning  of 
another.  It  marks  the  end  of  Humanity's  Childhood 
and  the  beginning  of  Humanity's  Manhood. 

Our  human  Past  is  a  mighty  fact  of  our  world. 
Many  facts  are  unstable,  impermanent,  and  evan- 
escent— they  are  here  to-day,  and  to-morrow  they 
are  gone.  Not  so  with  the  great  fact  of  our  human 
Past.  Our  past  abides. 

"It  is  permanent.  It  can  be  counted  on.  It  is  nearly 
eternal  as  the  race  of  man.  Out  of  that  past  we  have  come. 
Into  it  we  are  constantly  returning.  Meanwhile,  it  is  of 
the  utmost  importance  to  our  lives.  It  contains  the  roots 
of  all  we  are,  and  of  all  we  have  of  wisdom,  of  science,  of 
philosophy,  of  art,  of  jurisprudence,  of  customs  and  insti- 
tutions. It  contains  the  record  or  ruins  of  all  the  experi- 
ments that  man  has  made  during  a  quarter  or  a  half  million 
years  in  the  art  of  living  in  this  world."  (Keyser,  Human 
Worth  of  Rigorous  Thinking.) 

In  our  relation  to  the  past  there  are  three  wide- 
open  ways  in  which  one  may  be  a  fool.  One  of  the 
ways  is  the  way  of  ignoring  the  past- — the  way  of 

167 


1 68  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

remaining  blankly  ignorant  of  the  human  past  as  the 
animals  are  blankly  ignorant  of  their  past  and  so  of 
drifting  through  life  as  animals  do,  without  refer- 
ence to  the  experience  of  bygone  generations.  Fools 
of  this  type  may  be  called  drifting  fools  or  Drifters. 
Another  way  to  be  a  fool — a  very  alluring  way — is 
that  of  falsifying  the  past  by  idealizing  it — by  stu- 
pidly disregarding  its  vices,  misery,  ignorance,  sloth- 
fulness,  and  folly,  and  stupidly  magnifying  its  vir- 
tues, happiness,  knowledge,  achievements  and  wis- 
dom; it  is  the  way  of  the  self-complacent — the  way 
of  those  who,  being  comfortably  situated  and  pros^ 
perous,  are  opposed  to  change;  the  past,  they  say, 
was  wise  for  it  produced  the  present  and  the  present 
is  good — let  us  alone.  Fools  of  this  type  may  be 
called  idolatrous  fools,  worshiping  the  Past;  or  static 
fools,  contented  with  the  Present;  or  cowardly  fools, 
opposed  to  change,  fearful  of  the  Future.  A  third 
way  to  be  a  fool — which  is  also  alluring — is  the  op- 
posite of  the  foregoing;  it  is  the  way  of  those  who 
falsify  the  past  by  stupidly  and  contemptuously  dis- 
regarding its  virtues,  its  happiness,  its  knowledge, 
its  great  achievements,  and  its  wisdom,  and  by  stu- 
pidly or  dishonestly  magnifying  its  vices,  its  misery, 
its  ignorance,  its  great  slothfulness,  and  its  folly; 
it  is  apt  to  be  the  way  of  the  woeful,  the  unpros- 
perous,  the  desperate — especially  the  way  of  such  as 
find  escape  from  the  bore  of  routine  life  in  the  excite- 


MANHOOD  or  HUMANITY  169 

ments  of  unrest,  turbulence,  and  change;  the  past, 
they  say,  was  all  wrong,  for  it  produced  the  present 
and  the  present  is  thoroughly  bad — let  us  destroy  it, 
root  and  branch.  Fools  of  this  type  may  be  called 
scorning  fools,  Scorners  of  the  Past;  or  destroying 
fools,  Destroyers  of  the  Present;  or  dynamic  fools, 
Revelers  in  the  excitements  of  Change. 

Such  are  the  children  of  folly:  (i)  Drifting  fools 
— ignorers  of  the  past — disregarders  of  race  expe- 
rience— thoughtless  floaters  on  the  shifting  currents 
of  human  affairs;  (2)  Static  fools — idealizers  of  the 
past — complacent  lovers  of  the  present — enemies  of 
change — fearful  of  the  future;  (3)  Dynamic  fools 
— scorners  of  the  past — haters  of  the  present — de- 
stroyers of  the  works  of  the  dead — most  modest  of 
fools,  each  of  them  saying:  "What  ought  to  be  begins 
with  Me;  I  will  make  the  world  a  paradise;  but  my 
genius  must  be  free;  now  it  is  hampered  by  the  exist- 
ing 'order' — the  bungling  work  of  the  past;  I  will 
destroy  it;  I  will  start  with  chaos;  we  need  light — 
the  Sun  casts  shadows — I  will  begin  by  blotting  out 
the  Sun;  then  the  world  will  be  full  of  glory — the 
light  of  my  genius." 

In  striking  contrast  with  that  three-fold  division 
of  Folly,  the  counsel  of  Wisdom  is  one,  and  it  is 
one  with  the  sober  counsel  of  Common  Sense.  What 
is  that  counsel?  What  is  the  united  counsel  of  wis- 
dom and  common  sense  respecting  the  past?  The 


1 70  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

answer  is  easy  and  easy  to  understand.  The  counsel 
is  this:  Do  not  ignore  the  past  but  study  it — study 
it  diligently  as  being  the  mightiest  factor  among  the 
great  factors  of  our  human  world;  endeavor  to  view 
the  past  justly,  to  contemplate  it  as  it  was  and  is, 
to  see  it  whole — to  see  it  in  true  perspective — mag- 
nifying neither  its  good  nor  its  evil,  neither  its 
knowledge  nor  its  ignorance,  neither  its  enterprise 
nor  its  slothfulness,  neither  its  achievements  nor  its 
failures;  as  the  salient  facts  are  ascertained,  endeavor 
to  account  for  them,  to  find  their  causes,  their  favor- 
ing conditions,  to  explain  the  facts  to  understand 
them,  applying  always  the  question  Why?  Centuries 
of  centuries  of  cruel  superstition — Why?  Centuries 
of  centuries  of  almost  complete  ignorance  of  natu- 
ral law — Why?  Centuries  of  centuries  of  mon- 
strous misconceptions  of  human  nature — Why? 
Measureless  creations,  wastings  arid  destructions  of 
wealth — Why?  Endless  rolling  cycles  of  enterprise, 
stagnation,  and  decay — Why?  Interminable  altera- 
tions of  peace  and  war,  enslavements  and  emancipa- 
tions— Why?  Age  after  age  of  world-wide  worship 
of  man-made  gods,  silly,  savage,  enthroned  by  myth 
and  magic,  celebrated  and  supported  by  poetry  and 
the  wayward  speculations  of  ignorant  "sages" — 
Why?  Age  upon  age  of  world-wide  slow  develop- 
ments of  useful  inventions,  craftsmanship,  commerce, 
and  art — Why?  Ages  of  dark  impulsive  groping 


MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY  171 

before  the  slow  discovery  of  reason,  followed  by  cen- 
turies of  belief  in  the  sufficiency  of  ratiocination  un- 
aided by  systematic  observation  and  experiment — 
Why?  At  length  the  dawn  of  scientific  method  and 
science,  the  growth  of  natural  knowledge,  immeas- 
urable expansion  of  the  universe  in  Time  and  in 
Space,  belief  in  the  lawfulness  of  Nature,  rapidly 
increasing  subjugation  of  natural  forces  to  human 
control,  growing  faith  in  the  limitless  progressibility 
of  human  knowledge  and  in  the  limitless  perfecti- 
bility of  human  welfare — Why?  The  widely  diverse 
peoples  of  the  world  constrained  by  scientific  prog- 
ress to  live  together  as  in  one  community  upon  a 
greatly  shrunken  and  rapidly  shrinking  planet,  the 
unpreparedness  of  existing  ethics,  law,  philosophy, 
economics,  politics  and  government  to  meet  the 
exigencies  thus  arising — Why? 

Such  I  take  to  be  the  counsel  of  wisdom — the  sim- 
ple wisdom  of  sober  common  sense.  To  ascertain 
the  salient  facts  of  our  immense  human  past  and  then 
to  explain  them  in  terms  of  their  causes  and  condi- 
tions is  not  an  easy  task.  It  is  an  exceedingly  dif- 
ficult one,  resuiring  the  labor  of  many  men,  of  many 
generations;  but  it  must  be  performed;  for  it  is  only 
in  proportion  as  we  learn  to  know  the  great  facts 
of  our  human  past  and  their  causes  that  we  are 
enabled  to  understand  our  human  present,  for  the 
present  is  the  child  of  the  past ;  and  it  is  only  in  pro- 


172  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

portion  as  we  thus  learn  to  understand  the  present 
that  we  can  face  the  future  with  confidence  and  com- 
petence. Past,  Present,  Future — these  can  not  be 
understood  singly  and  separately — they  are  welded 
together  indissolubly  as  one. 

The  period  of  humanity's  childhood  has  been  long 
i — 300,000  to  500,000  years,  according  to  the  witness 
of  human  relics,  ruins  and  records  of  the  caves  and 
the  rocks — a  stretch  of  time  too  vast  for  our  imagi- 
nations to  grasp.  Of  that  immense  succession  of 
ages,  except  a  minute  fraction  of  it  including  our  own 
time,  we  have,  properly  speaking,  no  history;  we 
have  only  a  rude,  dim,  broken  outline.  Herodotus, 
whom  we  call  "the  father  of  history"  proper,  lived 
less  than  2500  years  ago.  What  is  2500  years  com- 
pared with  the  whole  backward  stretch  of  human 
time?  We  have  to  say  that  the  father  of  human 
history  lived  but  yesterday — a  virtual  contemporary 
of  those  now  living.  Our  humankind  groped  upon 
this  globe  for  probably  400,000  years  before  the 
writing  of  what  we  call  history  had  even  begun.  If 
we  regard  history  as  a  kind  of  racial  memory,  what 
must  we  say  of  our  race's  memory?  It  is  like  that 
of  a  man  of  20  years  whose  recollection  extends 
back  less  than  3  months  or  like  that  of  a  man  of  60 
years  whose  recollection  fails  to  reach  any  event 
of  the  first  59  years  of  his  life.  Owing  to  the  work 
of  geologists,  paleontologists,  ethnologists  and  their 


MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY  173 

co-workers,  the  history  of  prehistoric  man  will  grow, 
just  as  we  know  to-day  more  about  the  life  of  man- 
kind in  the  time  of  Herodotus  than  Herodotus  him- 
self knew.  Meanwhile  we  must  try  to  make  the  best 
use  of  such  historical  knowledge  of  man  as  we  now 
possess. 

Even  if  the  story  of  humanity's  childhood  were 
fully  recorded  in  the  libraries  of  the  world,  it  would 
not  be  possible  in  this  brief  writing  to  recount  the 
story  in  even  the  most  summary  fashion.  Except  the 
tale  of  recent  years,  the  story  is  known  as  I  have 
said,  only  in  outline,  rude,  dim  and  broken,  but  for 
the  present  purpose  this  will  suffice.  Countless  mul- 
titudes of  details  are  lost — most  of  them  doubtless 
forever.  But  we  need  not  despair.  The  really  great 
facts  of  our  racial  childhood — the  massive,  domi- 
nant, outstanding  facts — are  sufficiently  clear  for  our 
guidance  in  the  present  enterprise.  And  what  do  we 
know? 

We  know  that  the  period  of  our  human  child- 
hood has  been  inconceivably  long;  we  know  that  in 
the  far  distant  time,  the  first  specimens  of  human- 
kind— the  initial  members  of  the  time-binding  race 
of  man — were  absolutely  without  human  knowledge 
of  the  hostile  world  in  which  they  found  themselves ; 
we  know  that  they  had  no  conception  of  what  they 
themselves  were;  we  know  that  they  had  neither 
speech  nor  art  nor  philosophy  nor  religion  nor  sci- 


174  MANHOOD  or  HUMANITY 

ence  nor  tools  nor  human  history  nor  human  tradi- 
tion; we  know,  though  we  to-day  can  hardly  imagine 
it,  that  their  sole  equipment  for  initiating  the  career 
of  the  human  race  was  that  peculiar  faculty  which 
made  them  human — the  capacity  of  man  for  binding 
time;  we  know  that  they  actually  did  that  work  of 
initiation,  without  any  guidance  or  example,  maxim 
or  precedent;  and  we  know  that  they  were  able  to  do 
it  just  because  the  power  of  initiation — the  power  to 
originate — is  a  time-binding  power. 

What  else  do  we  know  of  the  earliest  part  of 
humanity's  childhood?  We  know  that  in  that  far- 
distant  age,  our  ancestors — being,  not  animals,  but 
human  creatures — not  only  began  to  live  in  the 
human  dimension  of  life — forever  above  the  level  of 
animals — but  continued  therein,  taking  not  only  the 
first  step,  but  the  second,  the  third,  and  so  on  in- 
definitely; we  know,  in  other  words,  that  they  were 
progressive  creatures,  that  they  made  advancement; 
we  know  that  their  progress  was  natural  to  them — 
as  natural  as  swimming  is  to  fishes  or  as  flying  is  to 
birds — for  both  the  impulse  and  the  ability  to  pro- 
gress— to  make  improvement — to  do  greater  things 
by  help  of  things  already  done — are  of  the  very 
nature  of  the  time-binding  capacity  which  makes 
humans  human. 

We  know  that  time-binding  capacity — the  capac- 
ity for  accumulating  racial  experience,  enlarging  it, 


MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY  175 

and  transmitting  it  for  future  expansion — is  the 
peculiar  power,  the  characteristic  energy,  the  defini- 
tive nature,  the  defining  mark,  of  man;  we  know 
that  the  mental  power,  the  time-binding  capacity, 
of  our  pre-historic  ancestors,  was  the  same  in  kind 
as  our  own,  if  not  in  degree;  we  know  that  it  is 
natural  for  this  capacity,  the  highest  known  agency 
of  Nature,  to  produce  ideas,  inventions,  insights, 
doctrines,  knowledge  and  other  forms  of  wealth; 
we  know  that  progress  in  what  we  call  civilization, 
which  is  nothing  but  progress  in  the  production  and 
right  use  of  material  and  spiritual  wealth,  has  been 
possible  and  actual  simply  and  solely  because  the 
products  of  time-binding  work  not  only  survive,  but 
naturally  tend  to  propagate  their  kind — ideas 
begetting  ideas,  inventions  leading  to  other  inven- 
tions, knowledge  breeding  knowledge;  we  therefore, 
know  that  the  amount  of  progress  which  a  single 
generation  can  make,  if  it  have  an  adequate  supply 
of  raw  material  and  be  unhampered  by  hostile  cir- 
cumstances, depends,  not  only  upon  its  native 
capacity  for  binding  time,  but  also — and  this  is  of 
the  utmost  importance — upon  the  total  progress 
made  by  preceding  generations — upon  the  inherited 
fruit,  that  is,  of  the  time-binding  toil  of  the  dead; 
accordingly  we  know  that  the  amount  of  progress  a 
single  generation  can  thus  make  is  what  mathemati- 
cians call  an  increasing  function  of  time,  and  not 


176  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

only  an  increasing  function  but  an  increasing  expo- 
nential function  of  time — a  function  like  PRT,  as 
already  explained;  we  know,  too,  that  the  total 
progress  which  T  successive  generations  can  thus 
make  is: 

R          T 
R  —  i 

which  is  also  an  increasing  exponential  function  of 
time;  we  know  from  the  differential  calculus  that 
these  functions — which  represent  natural  laws,  laws 
of  human  nature,  laws  of  the  time-binding  energies 
of  man — are  very  remarkable  functions — not  only  do 
they  increase  with  time  but  their  rates  of  increase 
are  also  exponential  functions  of  time  and  so  the 
rates  of  increase  themselves  increase  at  rates  which 
are,  again,  exponential  functions,  and  so  on  and  on 
without  limit;  that,  I  say,  is  a  marvelous  fact,  and 
it  is  for  us  a  fact  of  immeasurable  significance;  for 
it  means  that  the  time-binding  power  of  man  is  such 
that,  if  it  be  allowed  to  operate  naturally,  civilization 
— the  production  and  right  use  of  material  and 
spiritual  wealth — will  not  only  grow  towards  infinity 
(as  mathematicians  say),  but  will  thus  grow  with 
a  swiftness  which  is  not  constant  but  which  itself 
grows  towards  infinity  with  a  swiftness  which,  again, 
is  not  constant  but  increases  according  to  the  same 
law,  and  so  on  indefinitely.  We  thus  see,  if  we  will 


MANHOOD  or  HUMANITY  177 

only  retire  to  our  cloisters  and  contemplate  it,  that 
the  proper  life  of  man  as  man  is  not  life-in-space 
like  that  of  animals,  but  is  life-in-time;  we  thus  see 
that  in  distinctively  human  life,  in  the  life  of  man 
as  man,  the  past  is  present  and  the  dead  survive 
destined  to  greet  and  to  bless  the  unborn  genera- 
tions: time,  bound-up  time,  is  literally  of  the  core 
and  substance  of  civilization.  So  it  has  been  since 
the  beginning  of  man. 

We  know  that  the  total  progress  made  in  the  long 
course  of  humanity's  childhood,  though  it  is  abso- 
lutely great,  is  relatively  small;  we  know  that,  com- 
pared with  no-civilization,  our  present  civilization  is 
vast  and  rich  in  many  ways;  we  know,  however,  that, 
if  the  time-binding  energies  of  humanity  had  been 
always  permitted  to  operate  unhampered  by  hostile 
circumstances,  they  would  long  ere  now  have  pro- 
duced a  state  of  civilization  compared  with  which 
our  present  estate  would  seem  mean,  meagre,  savage. 
For  we  know  that  those  peculiar  energies — the  civili- 
zation-producing energies  of  man — far  from  being 
always  permitted  to  operate  according  to  the  laws 
of  their  nature,  have  never  been  permitted  so  to 
operate,  but  have  always  been  hampered  and  are 
hampered  to-day  by  hostile  circumstances.  And,  if 
we  reflect,  we  may  know  well  enough  what  the 
enemies — the  hostile  circumstances — have  been  and 
are.  We  know  that  in  the  beginning  of  humanity's 


178  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

childhood — in  its  babyhood,  so  to  speak — there  was, 
as  already  said,  no  capital  whatever  to  start  with — 
no  material  wealth — no  spiritual  wealth  in  the  form 
of  knowledge  of  the  world  or  the  nature  of  man — 
no  existing  fruit  of  dead  men's  toil — no  bound-up 
time — nothing  but  wild  and  raw  material,  whose 
very  location,  properties  and  potencies  had  all  to  be 
discovered;  even  now,  because  we  have  inherited  so 
much  bound-up  time  and  because  our  imaginations 
have  been  so  little  disciplined  to  understand  realities, 
we  can  scarcely  picture  to  ourselves  the  actual  condi- 
tions of  that  far-off  time  of  humanity's  babyhood; 
still  less  do  we  realize  that  present  civilization  has 
hardly  begun  to  be  that  of  enlightened  men.  We 
know,  moreover,  that  the  time-binding  energies  of 
our  remote  ancestors  were  hampered  and  baulked, 
in  a  measure  too  vast  for  our  imaginations,  by  im- 
mense geologic  and  climatic  changes,  both  sudden 
and  secular,  unforeseen  and  irresistible — by  earth- 
quake and  storm,  by  age-long  seasons  of  flood  and 
frost  and  heat  and  drought,  not  only  destroying  both 
natural  resources  and  the  slowly  accumulated  prod- 
ucts of  by-gone  generations  but  often  extinguishing 
the  people  themselves  with  the  centers  and  abodes  of 
struggling  civilization. 

Of  all  the  hostile  circumstances,  of  all  the  causes 
which  throughout  the  long  period  of  humanity's 
childhood  have  operated  to  keep  civilization  and 


MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY  179 

human  welfare  from  progressing  in  full  accord  with 
the  natural  laws  of  the  time-binding  energies  of  man, 
the  most  potent  cause  and  most  disastrous,  a  cause 
still  everywhere  in  operation,  remains  to  be  men- 
tioned. I  mean  human  ignorance.  I  do  not  mean 
ignorance  of  physical  facts  and  the  laws  of  physical 
nature  for  this  latter  ignorance  is  in  large  measure 
the  effect  of  the  cause  I  have  in  mind.  The  igno- 
rance I  mean  is  far  more  fundamental  and  far  more 
potent.  I  mean  human  ignorance  of  Human  Nature 
— I  mean  man's  ignorance  of  what  Man  is — I  mean 
false  conceptions  of  the  rightful  place  of  man  in  the 
scheme  of  life  and  the  order  of  the  world.  What 
the  false  conceptions  are  I  have  already  pointed  out. 
They  are  two.  One  of  them  is  the  conception  accord- 
ing to  which  human  beings  are  animals.  The  other 
one  is  the  conception  according  to  which  human 
beings  have  no  place  in  Nature  but  are  hybrids  of 
natural  and  ^wp^rnatural,  animals  combined  with 
something  "divine."  Both  of  them  are  characteristic 
of  humanity's  childhood;  both  of  them  are  erro- 
neous, and  both  of  them  have  done  infinite  harm  in 
a  thousand  ways.  Whose  is  the  fault?  In  a  deep 
sense,  it  is  the  fault  of  none.  Man  started  with  no 
capital — on  knowledge — with  nothing  but  his  phys- 
ical strength  and  the  natural  stirring  within  of  the 
capacity  for  binding  time;  and  so  he  had  to  grope. 
It  is  not  strange  that  he  was  puzzled  by  himself.  It 


180  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

is  not  strange  that  he  thought  himself  an  animal; 
for  he  has  animal  propensities  as  a  cube  has  sur- 
faces, and  his  animal  propensities  were  so  obtrusive, 
so  very  evident  to  physical  sense — he  was  born,  grew, 
had  legs  and  hair,  ate,  ran,  slept,  died — all  just  like 
animals — while  his  distinctive  mark,  his  time-binding 
capacity,  was  subtle;  it  was  spiritual;  it  was  not  a 
visible  organ  but  an  invisible  function;  it  was  the 
energy  called  intellect  or  mind,  which  the  physical 
senses  do  not  perceive ;  and  so  I  say  it  is  not  strange 
— it  is  indeed  very  sad  and  very  pathetic — but  it  is 
not  to  be  wondered  at  that  human  beings  have  falsely 
believed  themselves  to  be  animals.  So,  too,  of  the 
rival  belief — the  belief  that  humans  are  neither  nat- 
ural nor  supernatural  but  are  both  at  once,  at  once 
brutal  and  divine,  hybrid  offspring  of  beast  and  god. 
The  belief  is  monstrous,  it  is  very  pathetic  and  very 
sad,  but  its  origin  is  easy  to  understand;  once  in- 
vented, it  became  a  powerful  instrument  for  evil  men, 
for  impostors,  but  it  was  not  invented  by  them;  it 
was  only  an  erroneous  result  of  an  honest  effort  to 
understand  and  to  explain.  For  the  obvious  facts 
created  a  real  puzzle  to  be  explained:  On  the  one 
hand,  men,  women  and  children — animal-hunting 
and  animal-hunted  human  beings — certainly  re- 
sembled animals  physically  in  a  hundred  unmistak- 
able ways;  on  the  other  hand,  it  became  more  and 
more  evident  that  the  same  animal-resembling 


MANHOOD  or  HUMANITY  181 

human  beings  could  do  many  things  which  animals 
never  did  and  could  not  do.  Here  was  a  puzzle,  a 
mystery.  Time-binding  curiosity  demanded  an  ex- 
planation. What  was  it  to  be?  Natural  science  had 
not  yet  arisen;  critical  conception — conception  that 
avoids  the  mixing  of  dimensions — was  in  the  state  of 
feeble  infancy.  It  is  easy  to  understand  what  the 
answer  had  to  be — childish  and  mythical;  and  so  it 
was — humans  are  neither  animals  nor  gods,  neither 
natural  nor  jwpmiatural,  they  are  both  at  once,  a 
mixture,  a  mysterious  union  of  animal  with  some- 
thing "divine." 

Such,  then,  are  the  two  rival  answers  which,  in  the 
long  dark,  groping  course  of  humanity's  childhood, 
human  beings  have  given  to  the  most  important  of 
all  questions — the  question:  What  is  Man?  I  have 
said  that  the  answers,  no  matter  how  sincere,  no 
matter  how  honestly  arrived  at,  are  erroneous,  false 
to  fact,  and  monstrous.  I  have  said,  and  I  repeat, 
that  the  misconceptions  involved  in  them  have  done 
more  throughout  the  by-gone  centuries,  and  are 
doing  more  to-day,  than  all  other  hindering  causes, 
to  hamper  and  thwart  the  natural  activity  of  the 
time-binding  energies  of  man  and  thus  to  retard  the 
natural  progress  of  civilization.  It  is  not  merely 
our  privilege,  it  is  our  high  and  solemn  duty,  to 
examine  them.  To  perform  the  great  duty  is  not  an 
easy  task.  The  misconceptions  in  question  have  come 


182  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

down  to  us  from  remote  antiquity;  they  have  not 
come  down  singly,  separately,  clean-cut,  clear  and 
well-defined;  they  have  come  entangled  in  the  com- 
plicated mesh  of  traditional  opinions  and  creeds  that 
constitute  the  vulgar  "philosophy" — the  mental  fog 
— of  our  time.  If  we  are  to  perform  the  duty  of 
examining  them  we  have  first  of  all  to  draw  them 
forth,  to  disengage  them  from  our  inherited  tangle 
of  beliefs  and  frame  them  in  suitable  words ;  we  have 
next  to  bring  ourselves  to  realize  vividly  and  keenly 
that  the  conceptions,  thus  disentangled  and  framed, 
are  in  fact,  whether  they  be  true  or  false,  at  the 
very  heart  of  the  social  philosophy  of  the  world; 
we  have  in  the  third  place  to  detect  the  fundamental 
character  of  the  blunder  involved  in  them — to  see 
clearly  and  coldly  wherein  they  are  wrong  and  why 
they  are  ruinous ;  we  have,  finally,  to  trace,  if  we  can, 
their  deadly  effects  both  in  the  course  of  human 
history  and  in  the  present  status  of  our  human  world. 
The  task  of  disengaging  the  two  monstrous  mis- 
conceptions from  the  tangled  skein  of  inherited  be- 
liefs and  framing  them  in  words,  I  have  already 
repeatedly  performed.  Let  us  keep  the  results  in 
mind.  Here  they  are  in  their  nakedness :  ( i ) 
Human  beings — men,  women,  and  children — are 
animals  (and  so  they  are  natural)  :  (2)  human 
beings  are  neither  natural  nor  supernatural,  neither 
wholly  animal  nor  wholly  "divine,"  but  are  both 


MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY  183 

natural  and  supernatural  at  once — a  sort  of  mysteri- 
ous hybrid  compound  of  brute  and  gods. 

The  second  part  of  our  task — which  is  the  reader's 
task  as  much  as  mine — is  not  so  easy;  and  the  reason 
is  evident.  It  is  this :  The  false  creeds  in  question — 
the  fatal  misconceptions  they  involve — are  so 
familiar  to  us — they  have  been  so  long  and  so  deeply 
imbedded  in  our  thought  and  speech  and  ways  of 
life — we  have  been  so  thoroughly  bred  in  them  by 
home  and  school  and  church  and  state — that  we 
habitually  and  unconsciously  take  them  for  granted 
and  have  to  be  virtually  stung  into  an  awareness  of 
the  fact  that  we  do  actually  hold  them  and  that  they 
do  actually  reign  to-day  throughout  the  world  and 
have  so  reigned  from  time  immemorial.  We  have, 
therefore,  to  shake  ourselves  awake,  to  prick  our- 
selves into  a  realization  of  the  truth. 

I  assume  that  the  reader  is  at  once  hard-headed, 
rational,  I  mean,  and  interested  in  the  welfare  of 
mankind.  If  he  is  not,  he  will  not  be  a  "reader" 
of  this  book.  He,  therefore,  knows  that  the  third 
task — the  task  of  detecting  and  exposing  the  funda- 
mental error  of  the  misconceptions  in  question — is 
a  task  of  the  utmost  importance.  What  is  that  error? 
It  is,  I  have  said,  an  error  in  logic.  But  logical 
errors  are  not  all  alike — they  are  of  many  kinds. 
What  is  the  "kind"  of  this  one?  It  is  the  kind  that 
consists  in  what  mathematicians  call  "confusion  of 


1 84  MANHOOD  or  HUMANITY 

types,"  or  "mixing  of  dimensions."  The  answer  can 
not  be  made  too  clear  nor  too  emphatic,  for  its  im- 
portance in  the  criticism  of  all  our  thinking  is  great 
beyond  measure.  There  are  millions  of  examples 
that  help  to  make  the  matter  clear.  I  will  again 
employ  the  simplest  of  them — one  so  simple  that  a 
child  can  understand  it.  It  is  a  mathematical  ex- 
ample, as  it  ought  to  be,  for  the  whole  question  of 
logical  types,  or  dimensions,  is  a  mathematical  one. 
I  beg  the  reader  not  to  shy  at,  or  run  away  from, 
the  mere  word  mathematical,  for,  although  most  of 
us  have  but  little  mathematical  knowledge,  we  all  of 
us  have  the  mathematical  spirit,  for  else  we  should 
not  be  human — we  are  all  of  us  mathematicians  at 
heart.  Let  us,  then,  proceed  confidently  and  at  once 
to  our  simple  example.  Here  is  a  surface,  say  a 
•plane  surface.  It  has  length  and  breadth — and  so 
it  has,  we  say,  tivo  dimensions ;  next  consider  a  solid, 
say  a  cube.  It  has  length,  breadth  and  thickness — 
and  so  It  has,  we  say,  three  dimensions.  Now  we 
notice  that  the  cube  has  surfaces  and  so  has  certain 
surface  properties.  Do  we,  therefore,  say  that  a 
solid  Is  a  surface?  That  the  cube  is  a  member  of 
the  class  of  surfaces?  If  we  did,  we  should  be  fools 
— type-confusing  fools — dimension-mixing  fools. 
That  is  evident.  Or  suppose  we  notice  that  solids 
have  certain  surface  properties  and  certain  prop- 
erties that  surfaces  do  not  have;  and  suppose  we  say 


MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY  185 

the  surface  properties  of  solids  are  natural  but  the 
other  properties  are  so  mysterious  that  they  must 
be  "jwprniatural"  or  somehow  "divine" ;  and  sup- 
pose we  then  say  that  solids  are  unions,  mixtures, 
compounds  or  hybrids  of  surfaces  and  something 
divine  or  5«/>miatural;  is  it  not  evident  that,  if  we 
did  that,  we  should  be  again  blundering  like  fools? 
Type-confusing  fools?  Dimension-mixing  fools? 
That  such  would  be  the  case  any  one  can  see.  Let 
us  now  consider  animals  and  human  beings,  and  let 
us  look  squarely  and  candidly  at  the  facts.  To  get 
a  start,  think  for  a  moment  of  plants.  Plants  are 
living  things;  they  take,  transform  and  appropriate 
the  energies  of  sun,  soil,  and  air,  but  they  have  not 
the  autonomous  power  to  move  about  in  space;  we 
may  say  that  plants  constitute  the  lowest  order  or 
class  or  type  or  dimension  of  life — the  dimension 
one;  plants,  we  see  are  binders  of  the  basic  energies 
of  the  world.  What  of  animals?  Like  the  plants, 
animals,  too,  take  in,  transform  and  appropriate  the 
energies  of  sun,  soil  and  air,  though  in  large  part 
they  take  them  in  forms  already  prepared  by  the 
plants  themselves;  but,  unlike  the  plants,  animals 
possess  the  autonomous  power  to  move  about  in 
space — to  creep  or  crawl  or  run  or  swim  or  fly — it 
is  thus  evident  that,  compared  with  plants,  animals 
belong  to  a  higher  order,  or  higher  class,  or  higher 
type,  or  higher  dimension  of  life;  we  may  therefore 


1 86  MANHOOD  or  HUMANITY 

say  that  the  type  of  animal  life  is  a  type  of  two 
dimensions — a  two-dimensional  type;  I  have  called 
them  space-binders  because  they  are  distinguished,  or 
marked,  by  their  autonomous  power  to  move  about 
in  space,  to  abandon  one  place  and  occupy  another 
and  so  to  appropriate  the  natural  fruits  of  many 
localities;  the  life  of  animals  is  thus  a  life-in-space 
in  a  sense  evidently  not  applicable  to  plants.  And 
now  what  shall  we  say  of  Man?  Like  the  animals, 
human  beings  have  indeed  the  power  of  mobility — 
the  autonomous  power  to  move — the  capacity  for 
binding  space,  and  it  is  obvious  that,  if  they  pos- 
sessed no  capacity  of  higher  order,  men,  women  and 
children  would  indeed  be  animals.  But  what  are 
the  facts?  The  facts,  if  we  will  but  note  them  and 
reflect  upon  them,  are  such  as  to  show  us  that  the 
chasm  separating  human  nature  from  animal  nature 
is  even  wider  and  deeper  than  the  chasm  between 
animal  life  and  the  life  of  plants.  For  man  im- 
proves, animals  do  not;  man  progresses,  animals  do 
not;  man  invents  more  and  more  complicated  tools, 
animals  do  not;  man  is  a  creator  of  material  and 
spiritual  wealth,  animals  are  not;  man  is  a  builder 
of  civilization,  animals  are  not;  man  makes  the  past 
live  in  the  present  and  the  present  in  the  future, 
animals  do  not;  man  is  thus  a  binder  of  time,  ani- 
mals are  not.  In  the  light  of  such  considerations,  if 
only  we  will  attend  to  their  mighty  significance,  it 


MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY  187 

is  as  clear  as  anything  can  be  or  can  become,  that 
the  life  of  man — the  time-binder — is  as  radically  dis- 
tinct from  that  of  animals — mere  space-binders — as 
animal  life  is  distinct  from  that  of  plants  or 
as  the  nature  of  a  solid  is  distinct  from  that  of 
a  surface,  or  that  of  a  surface  from  that  of  a  line. 
It  is,  therefore,  perfectly  manifest  that,  when  we  re- 
gard human  beings  as  animals  or  as  mixtures  of  ani- 
mal nature  with  something  mysteriously  supernatural, 
we  are  guilty  of  the  same  kind  of  blunder  as  if  we 
regarded  animals  as  plants  or  as  plants  touched  by 
"divinity" — the  same  kind  of  blunder  as  that  of  re- 
garding a  solid  as  a  surface  or  as  a  surface  miracu- 
lously transfigured  by  some  mysterious  influence  from 
outside  the  universe  of  space.  It  is  thus  evident  that 
our  guilt  in  the  matter  is  the  guilt  of  a  blunder  that 
is  fundamental — a  confusing  of  types,  a  mixing  of 
dimensions. 

Nothing  can  be  more  disastrous.  For  what  are 
the  consequences  of  that  kind  of  error?  Let  the 
reader  reflect.  He  knows  that,  if  our  ancestors  had 
committed  that  kind  of  error  regarding  lines  and 
surfaces  and  solids,  there  would  to-day  be  no  science 
of  geometry;  and  he  knows  that,  if  there  were  no 
geometry,  there  would  be  no  architecture  in  the 
world,  no  surveying,  no  railroads,  no  astronomy,  no 
charting  of  the  seas,  no  steamships,  no  engineering, 
nothing  whatever  of  the  now  familiar  world-wide 


1 88  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

affairs  made  possible  by  the  scientific  conquest  of 
space.  I  say  again,  let  the  reader  reflect;  for  if  he 
does  not,  he  will  here  miss  the  gravity  of  a  most 
momentous  truth.  He  readily  sees,  in  the  case  sup- 
posed, how  very  appalling  the  consequences  would 
have  been  if,  throughout  the  period  of  humanity's 
childhood,  there  had  occurred  a  certain  confusion 
of  types,  a  certain  mixing  of  dimensions,  and  he  is 
enabled  to  see  it  just  because,  happily,  the  blunder 
was  not  made  or,  if  made,  was  not  persisted  in,  for, 
if  it  had  been  made  and  persisted  in,  then  the  great 
and  now  familiar  things  of  which  it  would  have  de- 
prived the  world  would  not  be  here;  we  should  not 
now  be  able  even  to  imagine  them,  and  so  we  could 
not  now  compute  even  roughly  the  tremendous  mag- 
nitude of  the  blunder's  disastrous  consequences.  Let 
the  reader  not  deviate  nor  falter  nor  stagger  here; 
let  him  shoulder  the  burden  of  the  mighty  argument 
and  bear  it  to  the  goal.  He  easily  perceives  the  truly 
appalling  consequences  that  would  have  inevitably 
followed  from  the  error  of  confusing  types — the 
error  of  mixing  dimensions — in  the  matter  of  lines 
and  surfaces  and  solids,  if  that  error  had  been 
committed  and  persisted  in  throughout  the  cen- 
turies; he  can  perceive  those  consequences  just 
because  the  error  was  not  made  and  hence  the 
great  things  of  which  (had  the  blunder  been  made) 
it  would  have  deprived  the  world  are  here,  so  that 


MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY  189 

he  can  say:  "Behold  those  splendid  things — the 
science  of  geometry  and  its  manifold  applications 
everywhere  shining  in  human  affairs — imagine  all  of 
them  gone,  imagine  the  world  if  they  had  never  been, 
and  you  will  have  a  measure  of  the  consequences  that 
would  have  followed  violation  of  the  law  of  types, 
the  law  of  dimensions,  in  the  matter  of  lines,  surfaces 
and  solids."  But,  now,  in  regard  to  the  exactly  simi- 
lar error  respecting  the  nature  of  man,  the  situation 
is  reversed;  for  this  blunder,  unlike  the  other  one, 
is  not  merely  hypothetical;  we  have  seen  that  it  was 
actually  committed  and  has  been  actually  persisted  in 
from  time  immemorial;  not  merely  for  years  or  for 
decades  or  for  centuries  but  for  centuries  of  centuries 
including  our  own  day,  it  has  lain  athwart  the  course 
of  human  progress;  age  after  age  it  has  hampered 
and  baulked  the  natural  activity  of  the  time-binding 
energies — the  civilization-producing  energies — of 
humanity.  How  are  we  to  estimate  its  consequences? 
Let  the  reader  keep  in  mind  that  the  error  is  fun- 
damental— a  type-confusing  blunder  (like  that  sup- 
posed regarding  geometric  entities)  ;  let  him  reflect, 
moreover,  that  it  affects,  not  merely  one  of  our  human 
concerns,  but  all  of  them,  since  it  is  an  error  regard- 
ing the  center  of  them  all — regarding  the  very  nature 
of  man  himself;  and  he  will  know,  as  well  as  any- 
thing can  be  known,  that  the  consequences  of  the 
ages-old  blunder  have  been  and  are  very  momentous 


190  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

and  very  terrible.  Their  measure  is  indeed  beyond 
our  power;  we  cannot  describe  them  adequately,  we 
cannot  delineate  their  proportions,  for  we  cannot 
truly  imagine  them ;  and  the  reason  is  plain :  it  is  that 
those  advancements  of  civilization,  those  augmenta- 
tions of  material  and  spiritual  wealth,  all  of  the 
glorious  achievements  of  which  the  tragic  blunder 
has  deprived  the  world,  are  none  of  them  here;  they 
have  not  been  produced;  and  so  we  cannot  say,  as  in 
the  other  case:  "Look  upon  these  splendid  treasures 
of  bound-up  time,  imagine  them  taken  away,  and 
your  sense  of  the  appalling  loss  will  give  you  the 
measure  required."  It  is  evident  that  the  glories  of 
which  the  misconceptions  of  human  nature  have  de- 
prived manhood  must  long  remain,  perhaps  forever, 
in  the  sad  realm  of  dreams  regarding  great  and  noble 
things  that  might  have  been. 

I  have  said  that  the  duty  of  examining  the  mis- 
conceptions imposes  upon  us  four  obligations.  Three 
of  these  we  have  performed:  we  have  disengaged  the 
beliefs  in  question  from  the  complicated  tangle  of 
opinions  in  which  they  have  come  down  to  us  from 
remote  antiquity;  we  have  recognized  the  necessity 
and  the  duty  of  virtually  stinging  ourselves  into  an 
awareness  of  the  fact  that  we  have  actually  held 
them  for  true  and  that  from  time  immemorial  they 
have  poured  their  virus  into  the  heart  of  ethics,  eco- 
nomics, politics  and  government  throughout  the 


MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY  191 

world;  we  have  seen  not  only  that  the  beliefs  are 
false  but  that  their  falseness  is  due  to  a  blunder  of 
the  most  fundamental  kind — the  blunder  of  mixing 
dimensions  or  confusing  types.  As  already  said,  the 
fourth  one  of  the  mentioned  tasks  is  that  of  tracing, 
if  we  can,  the  blunder's  deadly  effects  both  in  human 
history  and  in  the  present  status  of  the  world.  We 
have  just  reached  the  conclusion  that  this  task  can- 
not be  fully  performed;  for  there  can  be  no  doubt, 
as  we  have  seen,  that,  if  the  blunder  had  not  been 
committed  and  persisted  in,  the  world  would  now 
possess  a  civilization  so  far  advanced,  so  rich  in  the 
spiritual  fruits  of  time  and  toil,  as  to  be  utterly 
beyond  our  present  power  to  conceive  or  imagine  it. 
But,  though  we  cannot  perform  the  task  fully,  our 
plight  is  far  from  hopeless.  The  World  War  has 
goaded  us  into  thinking  as  we  never  thought  before. 
It  has  constrained  us  to  think  of  realities  and  espe- 
cially to  think  of  the  supreme  reality — the  reality 
of  Man.  That  is  why  the  great  Catastrophe  marks 
the  close  of  humanity's  childhood.  The  period  has 
been  long  and  the  manner  of  its  end  is  memorable 
forever — a  sudden,  flaming,  world-wide  cataclysmic 
demonstration  of  fundamental  ignorance — human 
ignorance  of  human  nature.  It  is  just  that  tragic 
demonstration,  brutal  as  an  earthquake,  pitiless  as 
fate  or  famine,  that  gives  us  ground  for  future  hope. 
It  has  forced  us  to  think  of  realities  and  it  is  thought 


1 92  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

of  reality  that  will  heal  the  world.  And  so  I  say 
that  these  days,  despite  their  fear  and  gloom,  are  the 
beginning  of  a  new  order  in  human  affairs — the  order 
of  permanent  peace  and  swift  advancement  of  human 
weal.  For  we  know  at  length  what  human  beings 
are,  and  the  knowledge  can  be  taught  to  men  and 
women  and  children  by  home  and  school  and  church 
and  press  throughout  the  world;  we  know  at  length, 
and  we  can  teach  the  world,  that  man  is  neither  an 
animal  nor  a  miraculous  mixture  of  angel  and  beast; 
we  know  at  length,  and  we  can  teach,  that,  through- 
out the  centuries,  these  monstrous  misconceptions 
have  made  countless  millions  mourn  and  that  they 
are  doing  so  to-day,  for,  though  we  cannot  com- 
pute the  good  of  which  they  have  deprived  mankind, 
we  can  trace  the  dark  ramifications  of  their  positive 
evil  in  a  thousand  ways ;  we  know  at  length,  and  we 
can  teach,  that  man,  though  he  is  not  an  animal, 
is  a  natural  being,  having  a  definite  place,  a  rank 
of  his  own,  in  the  hierarchy  of  natural  life;  we  know 
at  length,  and  we  can  teach  the  world,  that  what 
is  characteristic  of  the  human  class  of  life — that 
which  makes  us  human — is  the  power  to  create 
material  and  spiritual  wealth — to  beget  the  light  of 
reasoned  understanding — to  produce  civilization — it 
is  the  unique  capacity  of  man  for  binding  time,  unit- 
ing past,  present  and  future  in  a  single  growing 
reality  charged  at  once  with  the  surviving  creations 


MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY  193 

of  the  dead,  with  the  productive  labor  of  the  living, 
with  the  rights  and  hopes  of  the  yet  unborn;  we 
know  at  length,  and  we  can  teach,  that  the  natural 
rate  of  human  progress  is  the  rate  of  a  swiftly  in- 
creasing exponential  function  of  time ;  we  know,  and 
we  can  teach,  that  what  is  good  in  present  civiliza- 
tion— all  that  is  precious  in  it,  sacred  and  holy — is 
the  fruit  of  the  time-binding  toil  struggling  blindly 
through  the  ages  against  the  perpetual  barrier  of 
human  ignorance  of  human  nature;  we  know  at 
length,  we  can  teach,  and  the  world  will  understand, 
that  in  proportion  as  we  rid  our  ethics  and  social 
philosophy  of  monstrous  misrepresentations  of 
human  nature,  the  time-binding  energies  of  humanity 
will  advance  civilization  in  accordance  with  their 
natural  law  PRT,  the  forward-leaping  function  of 
time. 

Such  knowledge  and  such  teaching  will  inaugurate 
the  period  of  humanity's  manhood.  It  can  be  made 
an  endless  period  of  rapid  developments  in  True 
civilization.  All  the  developments  must  grow  out 
of  the  true  conception  of  human  beings  as  constitut- 
ing the  time-binding  class  of  life,  and  so  the  work 
must  begin  with  a  campaign  of  education  wide 
enough  to  embrace  the  world.  The  cooperation  of 
all  educational  agencies — the  home,  the  school,  the 
church,  the  press — must  be  enlisted  to  make  known 
the  fundamental  truth  concerning  the  nature  of  man 


194  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

so  that  it  shall  become  the  guiding  light  and  habit 
of  men,  women,  and  children  everywhere.  Gradual 
indeed  but  profound  will  be  the  transformations 
wrought  in  all  the  affairs  of  mankind,  but  especially 
and  first  of  all  in  the  so-called  arts  and  sciences  of 
ethics,  economics,  politics  and  government. 

The  ethics  of  humanity's  manhood  will  be  neither 
"animal"  ethics  nor  "supernatural"  ethics.  It  will  be 
a  natural  ethics  based  upon  a  knowledge  of  the  laws 
of  human  nature.  It  will  not  be  a  branch  of  zoology, 
the  ethics  of  tooth  and  claw,  the  ethics  of  profiteer- 
ing, the  ethics  of  space-binding  beasts  fighting  for  "a 
place  in  the  sun."  It  will  be  a  branch  of  human- 
ology,  a  branch  of  Human  Engineering;  it  will  be  a 
time-binding  ethics,  the  ethics  of  the  entirely  natural 
civilization-producing  energies  of  humanity.  What- 
ever accords  with  the  natural  activity  of  those  ener- 
gies will  be  right  and  good;  whatever  does  not,  will 
be  wrong  and  bad.  "Survival  of  the  fittest"  in  the 
sense  of  the  strongest  is  a  space-binding  standard, 
the  ethical  standard  of  beasts;  in  the  ethics  of 
humanity's  manhood  survival  of  the  fittest  will  mean 
survival  of  the  best  in  competitions  for  excellence, 
and  excellence  will  mean  time-binding  excellence — 
excellence  in  the  production  and  right  use  of  material 
and  spiritual  wealth — excellence  in  science,  in  art,  in 
wisdom,  in  justice,  in  promoting  the  weal  and  pro- 
tecting the  rights  both  of  the  living  and  of  the  un- 


MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY  195 

born.  The  ethics  that  arose  in  the  dark  period  of 
humanity's  childhood  from  the  conception  of  human 
beings  as  mysterious  unions  of  animality  and  divinity 
gave  birth  to  two  repulsive  species  of  traffic — traffic 
in  men  regarded  as  animals,  fit  to  be  slaves,  and 
traffic  in  the  "supernatural,"  in  the  sale  of  indul- 
gences in  one  form  or  another  and  the  "divine  wis- 
dom" of  ignorant  priests.  It  is  needless  to  say  that 
in  the  natural  ethics  of  humanity's  manhood  those 
species  of  commerce  will  not  be  found. 

And  what  shall  we  say  in  particular  of  economics, 
of  "industry,"  "business  as  usual,"  and  the  "finance" 
of  "normalcy"?  There  lies  before  me  an  estab- 
lished handbook  of  Corporation  Finance,  by  Mr.  E. 
S.  Mead,  Ph.D.  (Appleton,  N.  Y.),  whose  purpose 
is  not  that  of  adverse  criticism  but  is  that  of  showing 
the  generally  accepted  "sound"  bases  for  prosperous 
business.  I  can  hardly  do  better  than  to  ask  the 
reader  to  ponder  a  few  extracts  from  that  work, 
showing  the  established,  and  amazing  theories,  for 
then  I  have  only  to  say  that  in  the  period  of  humanity's 
manhood  the  moral  blindness  of  such  "principles," 
their  space-binding  spirit  of  calculating  selfishness 
and  greed,  will  be  regarded  with  utter  loathing  as 
slavery  is  regarded  to-day.  Behold  the  picture : 

"Since  the  bondholder  is  solely  interested  in  the  security 
of  his  principal,  and  regular  payment  of  his  interest,  and 
since  both  security  and  interest  depend  Upon  the  permanence 


196  MANHOOD  or  HUMANITY 

of  income,  other  things  being  equal  the  companies  with  the 
most  stable  earnings  or  a  market  .  .  .  furnish  the  best 
security  for  bonds.  Stability  of  earnings  depends  upon  (i) 
the  possession  of  a  monopoly.  .  .  .  Monopoly  is  exclusive 
or  dominant  control  over  a  market.  The  more  complete 
this  control,  the  more  valuable  is  the  monopoly.  The  advan- 
tage of  monopoly  lies  in  the  fact  that  the  prices  of  services 
or  commodities  are  controlled  by  the  producers  (meaning 
owners — Author),  rather  than  by  the  consumer.  .  .  .  Mo- 
nopolies are  of  various  origins.  The  most  familiar  are  (i) 
franchises,  the  right  to  use  public  property  for  private  pur- 
poses, for  example,  the  furnishing  of  light,  water  and  trans- 
portation, (2)  control  of  sources  of  raw  material  .  .  .,  (3) 
patents,  .  .  .,  (4)  high  cost  of  duplicating  plant.  ...  In 
manufacturing  industries,  for  example,  those  enterprises 
which  produce  raw  materials  and  the  necessities  of  life  have 
a  more  stable  demand.  .  .  .  Railroads  furnish  perhaps  the 
best  basis  of  bond  issue  because  of  the  stability  of  the  demand 
for  the  transportation  service  ...  the  high  cost  of  dupli- 
cating the  railroad  plant,  .  .  .  enables  them  to  fix  their 
rates  on  freight  and  passenger  traffic.  .  .  .  The  security  of 
the  creditors  is  here  the  profitableness  of  the  business  which 
is  carried  on  in  the  factory.  Furthermore,  a  business  is  not 
an  aggregate  of  physical  property  but  consists  of  physical 
property — buildings,  boilers,  machine  tools — plus  an  indus- 
trial opportunity,  plus  the  organization  and  ability  to  oper- 
ate business."  (Italics  indicated  by  the  author.) 

There  we  see  the  animal  standards  in  their  studied 
perfection.  Comment  would  be  superfluous. 

In  the  period  of  humanity's  manhood,  the  so- 
called  "science"  of  economics,  the  "dismal  science" 
of  political  economy,  will  become  a  genuine  science 
based  upon  the  laws  of  the  time-binding  energies  of 


MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY  197 

humanity;  it  will  become  the  light  of  Human  Engi- 
neering— promoter,  guardian,  and  guide  of  human 
weal.  For  it  will  discover,  and  will  teach  that  a 
human  life,  a  time-binding  life,  is  not  merely  a  civi- 
lized life  but  a  civilizing  life;  it  will  know  and  will 
teach  that  a  civilizing  life  is  a  life  devoted  to  the 
production  of  potential  and  kinetic  use-values — to  the 
creation,  that  is,  of  material  and  spiritual  wealth; 
it  will  know  and  will  teach  that  wealth — both  mate- 
rial and  spiritual  wealth — is  a  natural  phenomenon 
— offspring  of  the  marriage  of  Time  and  human 
Toil;  it  will  know  and  will  teach  that  the  wealth  in 
the  world  at  any  given  moment  is  almost  wholly  the 
inherited  fruit  of  time  and  the  labor  of  the  dead; 
and  so  it  will  ask:  To  whom  does  the  inheritance 
rightly  belong?  Does  it  of  right  belong  to  Smith 
and  Brown?  If  so,  why?  Or  does  it  of  right  belong 
to  man — to  humanity?  If  so,  why?  And  what  does 
"humanity"  include?  Only  the  living,  who  are  rela- 
tively few?  Or  both  the  living  and  unborn?  The 
Economics  of  humanity's  manhood  will  not  only  ask 
these  questions  but  it  will  answer  them  and  answer 
them  aright.  In  seeking  the  answers,  it  will  discover 
some  obvious  truths  and  many  old  words  will  acquire 
new  meanings  consistent  with  the  time-binding  nature 
of  man.  It  will  discover  and  will  teach  that  the 
time-binders  of  a  given  generation  are  posterity  and 
ancestry  at  once — posterity  of  the  dead,  ancestry  of 


198  MANHOOD  or  HUMANITY 

all  the  generations  to  come ;  it  will  discover  and  will 
teach  that  in  this  time-binding  double  relationship 
uniting  past  and  future  in  a  single  living  growing 
Reality,  are  to  be  found  the  obligations  of  time- 
binding  ethics  and  the  seat  of  its  authority;  economics 
will  know  and  will  teach  that  human  posterity — 
time-binding  posterity — can  not  inherit  the  fruits  of 
time  and  dead  men's  toil  as  animals  inherit  the  wild 
fruits  of  the  earth,  to  fight  about  them  and  to  devour 
them,  but  only  as  trustees  for  the  generations  to 
come;  it  will  know  and  will  teach  that  "capitalistic" 
lust  to  keep  for  SELF  and  "proletarian"  lust  to  get 
for  SELF  are  both  of  them  space-binding  lust — ani- 
mal lust — beneath  the  level  of  time-binding  life. 
The  economics  of  humanity's  manhood  will  know  and 
will  teach  that  the  characteristic  energies  of  man  as 
man  are  by  nature  civilizing  energies,  wealth-pro- 
ducing energies,  time-binding  energies,  the  peaceful 
energies  of  inventive  mind,  of  growing  knowledge 
and  understanding  and  skill  and  light;  it  will  know 
and  will  teach  that  these  energies  of  existing  men 
united  with  one  billion  six  hundred  million  available 
"sun-man"  powers  united  with  the  ten  billion  living 
"man-powers  of  the  dead,"  if  they  be  not  wasted 
by  ignorance  and  selfishness,  by  conflict  and  compe- 
tition characteristic  of  beasts,  are  more  than  suffi- 
cient to  produce  a  high  order  of  increasing  pros- 


MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY  199 

perity  everywhere  throughout  the  world;  in  the 
period  of  its  manhood  economics  will  discover  and 
will  teach  that  to  produce  world  prosperity,  cooper- 
ation— not  the  fighting  of  man  against  man — but 
the  peaceful  cooperation  of  all  is  both  necessary  and 
Sufficient;  it  will  know  and  will  teach  that  such  coop- 
eration demands  scientific  leadership  and  a  common 
aim;  it  will  know,  however,  and  will  teach,  for  the 
lesson  of  Germany  is  plain,  that  scientific  knowledge 
and  a  common  aim  are  not  alone  sufficient;  it  will 
know  and  teach  and  all  will  understand  that  the 
common  aim,  the  unifying  principle,  the  basis  of  co- 
operation, cannot  be  the  welfare  of  a  family  nor  that 
of  a  province  or  a  state  or  a  race,  but  must  be  the 
welfare  of  all  mankind,  the  prosperity  of  humanity, 
the  weal  of  the  world — the  peaceful  production  of 
Wealth  without  the  destruction  of  War. 

In  humanity's  manhood,  patriotism — the  love  of 
country — will  not  perish — far  from  it — it  will  grow 
to  embrace  the  world,  for  your  country  and  mine 
will  be  the  world.  Your  "state"  and  mine  will  be 
the  Human  State — a  Cooperative  Commonwealth 
of  Man — a  democracy  in  fact  and  not  merely  in 
name.  It  will  be  a  natural  organic  embodiment  of 
the  civilizing  energies — the  wealth-producing  ener- 
gies— characteristic  of  the  human  class  of  life.  Its 
larger  affairs  will  be  guided  by  the  science  and  art 


2oo  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

of  Human  Engineering — not  by  ignorant  and  graft- 
ing "politicians" — but  by  scientific  men,  by  honest 
men  who  know. 

Is  it  a  dream?  It  is  a  dream,  but  the  dream  will 
come  true.  It  is  a  scientific  dream  and  science  will 
make  it  a  living  reality. 

How  is  the  thing  to  be  done?  No  one  can  foresee 
all  the  details,  but  in  general  outline  the  process  is 
clear.  Violence  is  to  be  avoided.  There  must  be  a 
period  of  transition — a  period  of  adjustment.  A 
natural  first  step  would  probably  be  the  establish- 
ment of  a  new  institution  which  might  be  called  a 
Dynamic  Department — Department  of  Coordina- 
tion or  a  Department  of  Cooperation — the  name  is 
of  little  importance,  but  it  would  be  the  nucleus  of 
the  new  civilization.  Its  functions  would  be  those 
of  encouraging,  helping  and  protecting  the  people 
in  such  cooperative  enterprises  as  agriculture,  manu- 
factures, finance,  and  distribution. 

The  Department  of  Cooperation  should  include 
various  sections,  which  might  be  as  follows : 

(i)  The  Section  of  Mathematical  Sociology  or 
Humanoloay:  composed  of  at  least  one  sociologist, 
one  biologist,  one  mechanical  engineer,  and  one  math- 
ematician. Their  work  would  be  the  development 
of  human  engineering  and  mathematical  sociology 
or  humanology;  promoting  the  progress  of  science; 
providing  and  supervising  instruction  in  the  theory 


MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY  201 

of  values  and  the  rudiments  of  humanology  for  ele- 
mentary schools  and  the  public  at  large.  The  mem- 
bers of  the  section  would  be  selected  by  the  appro- 
priate scientific  societies  for  a  term  fixed  by  the  se- 
lectors. 

(2)  The  Section   of  Mathematical  Legislation: 
composed  of  (say)  one  lawyer,  one  mathematician, 
one  mechanical  engineer,  selected  as  above.     Their 
task  would  be  to  recommend  legislation,  to  provide 
means  for  eliminating  "Legalism"  from  the  theory 
and  practice  of  law,  and  to  bring  jurisprudence  into 
accord  with  the  laws  of  time-binding  human  nature 
and  the  changing  needs  of  human  society.     Their 
legislative  proposals,   if  ratified  in  a  joint  session 
of  sections    (i)    and    (2),  would  then  be   recom- 
mended to  the  appropriate  legislative  bodies. 

(3)  The  Educational  Section:  composed  of  two 
or    three    teachers,    one    sociologist,    one    mechani- 
cal engineer,  one  mathematician,  selected  as  above. 
They  would  elaborate  educational  projects  and  revise 
school  methods  and  books ;  their  decisions  being  sub- 
ject to  the  approval  of  the  joint  session  of  sections 
(i),  (2),  and  (3). 

(4)  The    Cooperative    Section:    composed    of 
mechanical   engineers,    chemical   engineers,    produc- 
tion   engineers,    expert    bookkeepers,    accountants, 
business  managers,  lawyers  and  other  specialists  in 
their  respective  lines.    This  section  would  be  an  "In- 


202  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

dustrial  Red  Cross"  (Charles  Ferguson)  giving  ex- 
pert advice  when  asked  for  by  any  cooperative 
society. 

(5)  The    Cooperative    Banking    Section:    com- 
posed of  financial  experts,  sociologists,  and  mathema- 
ticians ;  its  task  being  to  help  with  expert  advice  new 
cooperative  people's  banks. 

(6)  The  Promoters'  Section:  composed  of  en- 
gineers whose  duty  would  be  to  study  all  of  the 
latest    scientific    facts,    collect   data,    and    elaborate 
plans.    Those  plans  would  be  published,  and  no  pri- 
vate person,  but  only  cooperative  societies,  would  be 
permitted  by  law  to  use   them.     The   department 
would  also  study  and  give  advice  respecting  the  gen- 
eral conditions  of  the  market  and  the  needs  in  the 
various  lines  of  production.    This  section  would  reg- 
ulate the  duplication  of  production. 

(7)  The  Farming  Section:  composed  of  special- 
ists in  scientific  and  cooperative  agriculture. 

(8)  The  Foreign  Section:  for  inter-cooperative 
foreign  relations. 

(9)  The  Commercial  Section. 

(10)  The  News  Section:  to  edit  a  large  daily 
paper  giving  true,  uncolored  news  with  a   special 
supplement    relating   to   progress    in   the   work    of 
Human  Engineering.     This  paper  would  give  daily 
news  about  the  whole  cooperative  movement,  mar- 
kets, etc.,  etc. 


MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY  203 

All  men  selected  to  the  places  for  this  work 
should  be  the  very  best  men  in  the  nation.  They 
should  be  well  paid  to  enable  them  to  give  their  full 
energy  and  time  to  their  duties.  All  the  selections 
for  this  work  should  be  made  in  the  same  manner 
as  mentioned  above — through  proven  merits  not 
clever  oratory.  Such  appointments  should  be  con- 
sidered the  highest  honor  that  a  country  can  offer 
to  its  citizens.  Every  selection  should  be  a  demon- 
stration that  the  person  selected  was  a  person  of  the 
highest  attainments  in  the  field  of  his  work. 

The  outline  of  this  plan  is  vague;  it  aims  merely 
at  being  suggestive.  Its  principal  purpose  is  to 
accentuate  the  imperative  necessity  of  establishing  a 
national  time-binding  agency — a  Dynamic  Depart- 
ment for  stimulating,  guiding  and  guarding  the 
civilizing  energies,  the  wealth  producing  energies, 
the  time-binding  energies,  in  virtue  of  which  human 
beings  are  human.  For  then  and  only  then  human 
welfare,  unretarded  by  monstrous  misconceptions  of 
human  nature,  by  vicious  ethics,  vicious  economics 
and  vicious  politics,  will  advance  peacefully,  contin- 
uously, and  rapidly,  under  the  leadership  of  human 
engineering,  happily  and  without  fear,  in  accord  with 
the  exponential  law — the  natural  law — of  the  time- 
binding  energies  of  Man. 


CHAPTER  X 

CONCLUSION 

"In  Europe  we  know  that  an  age  is  dying.  Here  it 
would  be  easy  to  miss  the  signs  of  coming  changes,  but 
I  have  little  doubt  that  it  will  come.  A  realization  of 
the  aimlessness  of  life  lived  to  labor  and  to  die,  having 
achieved  nothing  but  avoidance  of  starvation,  and  the 
birth  of  children  also  doomed  to  the  weary  treadmill, 
has  seized  the  minds  of  millions." 
Sir  Auckland  Geddes,  British  Ambassador  to  the  U.  S.  1920. 

TN  conclusion  let  me  say  very  briefly,  as  I  said  in 
the  beginning,  that  this  little  book  has  aimed  to 
be  only  a  sketch.  The  Problem  of  Life  is  old.  I 
have  endeavored  to  approach  it  afresh,  with  a  new 
method,  in  a  new  spirit,  from  a  new  point  of  view. 
The  literature  of  the  subject  is  vast.  It  displays 
great  knowledge  and  skill.  Much  of  it  is  fitted  to 
inform  and  to  inspire  such  as  really  read  with  a 
genuine  desire  to  understand.  Its  weakness  is  due 
to  the  absence  of  a  true  conception  of  what  human 
beings  are.  That  is  what  I  miss  in  it  and  it  is  that 
lack  of  fundamental  and  central  thought  that  I  have 
striven  to  supply.  If  I  have  succeeded  in  that,  I 
have  no  fear — all  else  will  follow  quickly,  inevitably, 
as  a  matter  of  course.  For  a  fundamental  concep- 
tion, once  it  is  formed  and  expressed,  has  a  strange 
power — the  power  of  enlisting  the  thought  and  co- 

204 


CONCLUSION  205 

operation  of  many  minds.  And  no  conception  can 
have  greater  power  in  our  human  world  than  a  true 
conception  of  the  nature  of  Man.  For  that  most 
important  of  truths  the  times  are  ripe;  the  world 
is  filled  with  the  saddest  of  memories,  with  gloom* 
forebodings  and  fear.  Without  the  truth  in  this 
matter,  there  can  be  no  rational  hope — history  must 
go  on  in  its  dismal  course;  but  with  the  truth,  there 
is  not  only  hope  but  certitude  that  the  old  order  has 
passed  and  that  humanity's  manhood  dates  from  the 
present  day.  That  I  have  here  presented  the  truth 
in  this  matter — the  true  conception  of  the  human 
class  of  life — I  have  personally  no  doubt;  and  I  have 
no  doubt  that  that  conception  is  to  be  the  base,  the 
guide,  the  source  of  light,  of  a  new  civilization. 
Whether  I  am  mistaken  or  not,  time  will  decide.  I 
feel  as  Buckle  felt  in  writing  his  History  of  Civiliza- 
tion: 

"Whether  or  not  I  have  effected  anything  of  real  value  .  .  . 
is  a  question  for  competent  judges  to  decide.  Of  this,  at 
least,  I  feel  certain,  that  whatever  imperfections  may  be 
observed,  the  fault  consists,  not  in  the  method  proposed,  but 
in  the  extreme  difficulty  of  any  single  man  putting  into  full 
operation  all  the  parts  of  so  vast  a  scheme.  It  is  on  this 
point,  and  on  this  alone,  that  I  feel  the  need  of  great  indul- 
gence. But,  as  to  the  plan  itself,  I  have  no  misgivings.  Of 
defects  in  its  execution  I  am  not  unconscious.  I  can  only 
plead  the  immensity  of  the  subject,  the  shortness  of  a  single 
life  and  the  imperfection  of  every  single  enterprise.  I,  there- 
fore, wish  this  work  to  be  estimated,  not  according  to  the 


206  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

finish  of  its  separate  parts,  but  according  to  the  way  in  which 
those  parts  have  been  fused  into  a  complete  and  symmetrical 
whole.  This,  in  an  undertaking  of  such  novelty  and  magni- 
tude, I  have  a  right  to  expect,  and  I  would  moreover,  add, 
that  if  the  reader  has  met  with  opinions  adverse  to  his  own, 
he  should  remember,  that  his  views  are,  perhaps,  the  same 
as  those  which  I  too  once  held,  and  which  I  have  abandoned, 
because,  after  a  wider  range  of  study,  I  found  them  unsup- 
ported by  solid  proof,  subversive  of  the  interest  of  Man,  and 
fatal  to  the  progress  of  his  knowledge.  To  examine  the 
notions  in  which  we  have  been  educated,  and  to  turn  aside 
from  those  which  will  not  bear  the  test,  is  a  task  so  painful, 
that  they  who  shrink  from  the  sufferings  should  pause  before 
they  reproach  those  by  whom  the  suffering  is  undergone.  .  .  . 
Conclusions  arrived  at  in  this  way  are  not  to  be  overturned 
by  stating  that  they  endanger  some  other  conclusions;  nor 
can  they  be  even  affected  by  allegation  against  their  supposed 
tendency.  The  principles  which  I  advocate  are  based  upon 
distinct  arguments  supported  by  well  ascertained  facts.  The 
only  points,  therefore,  to  be  ascertained,  are,  whether  the 
arguments  are  fair,  and  whether  the  facts  are  certain.  If 
these  two  conditions  have  been  obeyed,  the  principles  follow 
by  an  inevitable  inference." 

And  why  have  I  sought  throughout  to  follow  the 
spirit  of  mathematics?  Because  I  have  been  deal- 
ing with  ideas  and  have  desired,  above  all  things  else, 
to  be  right  and  clear.  Ideas  have  a  character  of  their 
own — they  are  right  or  wrong  independently  of  oar 
hopes  and  passions  and  will.  In  the  connection  of 
ideas  there  is  an  unbreakable  thread  of  destiny.  That 
is  why  in  his  Mathematical  Philosophy  Professor 
Keyser  has  truly  said: 


CONCLUSION  207 

"Mathematics  is  the  study  of  Fate — not  fate  in  a  physical 
sense,  but  in  the  sense  of  the  binding  thread  that  connects 
thought  with  thought  and  conclusions  with  their  premises. 
Where,  then,  is  our  freedom?  What  do  you  love?  Paint- 
ing? Poetry?  Music?  The  muses  are  their  fates.  Whoso 
loves  them  is  free.  Logic  is  the  muse  of  Thought." 

No  doubt  mathematics  is  truly  impersonal  in 
method;  too  impersonal  maybe  to  please  the  senti- 
mentalists before  they  take  the  time  to  think;  math- 
ematical analysis  of  life  phenomena  elevates  our 
point  of  view  above  passion,  above  selfishness  in  any 
form,  and,  therefore,  it  is  the  only  method  which  can 
tell  us  genuine  truths  about  ourselves.  Spinosa  even 
in  the  iyth  Century  had  well  realized  this  fact  and 
although  imperfect  in  many  ways,  his  was  an  effort  in 
the  right  direction  and  this  quoted  conclusion  may 
well  be  a  conclusion  for  ourselves  in  the  2Oth  century : 

"The  truth  might  forever  have  remained  hid  from  the 
human  race,  if  mathematics,  which  looks  not  to  the  final  cause 
of  figures,  but  to  their  essential  nature  and  the  properties 
involved  in  it,  had  not  set  another  type  of  knowledge  before 
them.  .  .  .  When  I  turned  my  mind  to  this  subject,  I  did 
not  propose  to  myself  any  novel  or  strange  aim,  but  simply 
to  demonstrate  by  certain  and  indubitable  reason,  those  things 
which  agree  best  with  practice.  And  in  order  that  I  might 
enquire  into  the  matters  of  the  science  with  the  same  free- 
dom of  mind  with  which  we  are  wont  to  treat  lines  and 
surfaces  in  mathematics;  I  determined  not  to  laugh  or  to 
weep  over  the  actions  of  men,  but  simply  to  understand  them ; 
and  to  contemplate  their  affections  and  passions,  such  as  love, 
hate,  anger,  envy,  arrogance,  pity  and  all  other  disturbances 


208  MANHOOD  OF  HUMANITY 

of  soul  not  as  vices  of  human  nature,  but  as  properties  per- 
taining to  it  in  the  same  way  as  heat,  cold,  storm,  thunder 
pertain  to  the  nature  of  the  atmosphere.  For  these,  though 
troublesome,  are  yet  necessary,  and  have  certain  causes 
through  which  we  may  come  to  understand  them,  and  thus, 
by  contemplating  them  in  their  truth,  gain  for  our  minds 
much  joy  as  by  the  knowledge  of  things  that  are  pleasing  to 
the  senses." 

If  only  this  little  book  will  initiate  the  scientific 
study  of  Man,  I  shall  be  happy;  for  then  we  may 
confidently  expect  a  science  and  art  that  will  know 
how  to  direct  the  energies  of  man  to  the  advance- 
ment of  human  weal. 

What  else?  Many  topics  have  not  even  been 
broached.  Time-binding  energy — what  may  it  not 
achieve  in  course  of  the  aeons  to  come?  What  light 
may  it  not  yet  throw  upon  such  fundamental  phe- 
nomena as  Space,  Time,  Infinity,  and  so  on?  What, 
if  any,  are  the  limits  of  Time-binding?  In  it  are 
somehow  involved  all  the  higher  functions  of  mind. 
Is  Time  identical  with  Intelligence?  Is  either  of 
them  the  other's  cause?  Is  Time  in  the  Cosmos  or 
is  the  latter  in  the  former?  Is  the  Cosmos  intelli- 
gent? Many  no  doubt  and  marvelous  are  the  fields 
which  the  scientific  study  of  man  will  open  for 
research. 


APPENDIX  I 

MATHEMATICS  AND  TIME-BINDING 

TPHE  purpose  of  this  appendix  is  to  give  an  expression  of 
some  new  ideas  which  evolve  directly  out  of  the  fact 
that  humans  are  time-binders  and  which  may  serve  as  sug- 
gestions for  the  foundation  of  scientific  psychology.  The 
problem  is  of  exceeding  difficulty  to  give  expression  to  in  any 
form  and  therefore  much  more  difficult  to  express  in  any 
exact  or  correct  form,  and  so  I  beg  the  reader's  patience  in 
regard  to  the  language  because  some  of  the  ideas  are  in  them- 
selves correct  and  sometimes  very  suggestive  in  spite  of  the 
language  used.  I  am  particularly  interested  that  mathema- 
ticians, physicists  and  metaphysicians  should  read  it  carefully, 
forgive  me  the  form,  and  look  into  the  suggestions,  because 
scientific  psychology  if  such  a  science  is  to  exist,  would  by 
necessity  have  to  be  a  branch  of  physics.  I  particularly  beg 
the  mathematicians  and  physicists  not  to  discard  this  appendix 
with  too  hasty  a  judgment  of  "Oh!  metaphysics,"  and  also 
the  metaphysicians  not  to  do  the  same  with  an  equally  hasty 
judgment  "Oh!  mathematics."  I  hope  that  if  this  appendix 
is  sympathetically  understood,  mathematicians  and  physicists 
will  be  moved  to  investigate  the  problem.  If  mathematicians 
and  physicists  would  be  more  tolerant  toward  metaphysics 
and  if  metaphysicians  would  be  moved  to  study  mathematics, 
both  would  find  tremendous  fields  to  work  in. 

Some  scientists  are  very  pedantic  and  therefore  intolerant 
in  their  pedantry  and  they  may  say  "the  fellow  should  learn 
first  how  to  express  himself  and  then  ask  our  attention."  My 
answer  is  that  the  problems  involved  are  too  pressing,  too 
vital,  too  fundamental  for  humankind,  to  permit  me  to  delay 

209 


210  APPENDIX  I 

for  perhaps  long  years  before  I  shall  be  able  to  present  the 
subject  in  a  correct  and  satisfactory  form,  and  also  that  the 
problems  involved  cover  too  vast  a  field  for  a  single  man 
to  work  it  conclusively.  It  seems  best  to  give  the  new  ideas 
to  the  public  in  a  suggestive  form  so  that  many  people  may 
be  led  to  work  on  them  more  fully. 

The  old  word  "metaphysics"  is  an  illegitimate  child  of 
ignorance  and  an  unnecessary  word  in  the  scientific  study  of 
nature.  Every  phenomenon  of  nature  can  be  classed  and 
studied  in  physics  or  chemistry  or  mathematics;  the  problem, 
therefore,  is  not  in  any  way  supernatural  or  superphysical, 
but  belongs  rather  to  an  unknown  or  an  undeveloped  branch 
of  physics.  The  problem,  therefore,  may  be  not  that  of  some 
new  science,  but  rather  that  of  a  new  branch  of  mathematics, 
or  physics,  or  chemistry,  etc.,  or  all  combined. 

It  is  pathetic  that  only  after  many  aeons  of  human  exist- 
ence the  dimensionality  of  man  has  been  discovered  and  his 
proper  status  in  nature  has  been  given  by  the  definition 
of  "time-binder."  The  old  metaphysics,  in  spite  of  its  being 
far  from  exact,  accomplished  a  great  deal.  What  prevented 
metaphysics  from  achieving  more  was  its  use  of  unmathe- 
matical  method,  or,  to  be  more  explicit,  its  failure  to  under- 
stand the  importance  of  dimensions.  Metaphysics  used  words 
and  conceptions  of  multi-dimensional  meanings  which  of  ne- 
cessity resulted  in  hopeless  confusion,  in  "a  talking"  about 
words,  in  mere  verbalism.  An  example  will  serve  to  make 
this  clear.  If  we  were  to  speak  of  a  cow,  a  man,  an  auto- 
mobile, and  a  locomotive  as  "pullers,"  and  if  we  were  not 
to  use  any  other  names  in  connection  with  them,  what  would 
happen?  If  we  characterized  these  things  or  beings,  by  one 
common  characteristic,  namely,  "to  pull,"  havoc  would  be 
introduced  into  our  conceptions  and  in  practical  life;  we 
would  try  to  milk  an  automobile  or  we  would  try  to  extract 
gasoline  from  a  cow,  or  look  for  a  screw  in  a  man,  or  we 
would  speculate  about  any  or  all  of  these  things.  Too  obvi- 


MATHEMATICS  AND  TIME-BINDING         211 

ously  nonsensical — but  exactly  the  same  thing  happens,  in  a 
much  more  subtle  way,  when  we  use  such  words  as  "life  in 
a  crystal"  or  "memory  in  animals";  we  are  thus  mentally 
making  a  mistake  no  less  nonsensical  than  the  talk  of  "milk- 
ing an  automobile"  would  be.  Laymen  are  baffled  by  the 
word  dimension.  They  imagine  that  dimensions  are  applic- 
able only  to  space,  which  is  three  dimensional,  but  they  are 
mistaken;  a  moving  object  is  four-dimensional — that  is,  it 
has  three  dimensions  as  any  object  at  rest,  but,  when  the 
object  is  moving,  a  fourth  dimension  is  necessary  to  give  its 
position  at  any  one  instant.  We  see,  therefore,  that  a  mov- 
ing body  has  four  dimensions,  and  so  on.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  scientific  psychology  will  very  much  need  mathematics, 
but  a  special  humanized  mathematics.  Can  this  be  pro- 
duced? It  seems  to  me  that  it  can. 

It  is  a  well  known  fact  that  experimental  sciences  bring 
us  to  face  facts  which  require  further  theoretical  elaboration ; 
in  this  way  experimental  sciences  are  a  permanent  source  of 
inspiration  to  mathematicians  because  new  facts  bring  about 
the  need  of  new  methods  of  analysis. 

In  this  book  a  new  and  experimental  fact  has  been  dis- 
closed and  analysed.  It  is  the  fact  that  humanity  is  a  time- 
binding  class  of  life  where  the  time-binding  capacity  or  the 
time-binding  ENERGY  is  the  highest  function  of  humanity, 
including  all  the  so-called  mental,  spiritual,  will,  etc.,  powers. 
In  using  the  words  mental,  spiritual,  and  will  powers,  I  de- 
liberately accept  and  use  them  in  the  popular,  ordinary  sense 
without  further  analysing  them. 

Once  the  word  and  concept  Time  enters,  the  ground  for 
analysis  and  reasoning  at  once  becomes  very  slippery.  Mathe- 
maticians, physicists,  etc.,  may  feel  that  the  expression  is  just 
a  "well  adapted  one,"  and  they  may  not  be  very  much 
inclined  to  look  closer  into  it  or  attentively  to  analyse  it. 
Theologians  and  metaphysicians  probably  will  speculate  a 
great  deal  about  it  vaguely,  with  undefined  terms  and  inco- 


212  APPENDIX  I 

herent  ideas  with  incoherent  results;  which  will  not  lead  us 
toward  a  scientific  or  true  solution,  but  will  keep  us  away 
from  the  discovery  of  truth. 

In  the  meantime  two  facts  remain  facts:  namely,  mathe- 
maticians and  physicists  have  almost  all  agreed  with  Min- 
kowski  "that  space  by  itself  and  time  by  itself,  are  mere 
shadows,  and  only  a  kind  of  blend  of  the  two  exists  in  its 
own  right."  The  other  fact — psychological  fact — is  that  time 
exists  psychologically  by  itself,  undefined  and  not  understood. 
One  chief  difficulty  is  always  that  humans  have  to  sit  in 
judgment  upon  their  own  case.  The  psychological  time  as 
such,  is  our  own  human  time;  scientific  time  as  such,  is  also 
our  own  human  time.  Which  one  of  them  is  the  best  con- 
cept— which  one  more  nearly  corresponds  to  the  truth  about 
"time"?  What  is  time  (if  any)  anyway?  Until  now  we 
have  gone  from  "Cosmos"  to  "Bios,"  from  "Bios"  to 
"Logos,"  now  we  are  confronted  with  the  fact  that  "Logos" 
— Intelligence — and  Time-binding  are  dangerously  near  to 
akin  to  each  other,  or  may  be  identical.  Do  we  in  this  way 
approach  or  go  back  to  "Cosmos"?  Such  are  the  crucial 
questions  which  arise  out  of  this  new  concept  of  Man.  One 
fact  must  be  borne  in  mind,  that  "the  principles  of  dynamics 
appeared  first  to  us,  as  experimental  truths ;  but  we  have  been 
obliged  to  use  them  as  definitions.  It  is  by  definition  that 
force  is  equal  to  the  product  of  mass  by  acceleration,  or  that 
action  is  equal  to  reaction."  (The  Foundation  of  Science, 
by  Henri  Poincare)  ;  and  mathematics  also  has  its  whole 
foundation  in  a  few  axioms,  "self  evident,"  but  psychological 
facts.  It  must  be  noted  that  the  time-binding  energy — the 
higher  or  highest  energies  of  man  (one  of  its  branches  any- 
way, for  sake  of  discrimination  let  us  call  it  "M")  when  it 
works  properly,  that  is,  mathematically,  does  not  work 
psychologically  but  works  ABSTRACTLY:  the  higher  the  ab- 
straction the  less  there  is  of  the  psychological  element  and 
the  more  there  is,  so  to  say,  of  the  pure,  impersonal  time- 


MATHEMATICS  AND  TIME-BINDING          213 

binding  energy  (M).  The  definition  of  a  man  as  a  time- 
binder — a  definition  based  on  facts — suggests  many  reflec- 
tions. One  of  them  is  the  possibility  that  one  of  the  func- 
tions of  the  time-binding  energy  in  its  pure  form,  in  the 
highest  abstraction  (M),  works  automatically — machine- 
like,  as  it  were,  shaping  correctly  the  product  of  its  activity, 
but  whether  truly  is  another  matter.  Mathematics  does  not 
presume  that  its  conclusions  are  true,  but  it  does  assert  that 
its  conclusions  are  correct;  that  is  the  inestimable  value  of 
mathematics.  This  becomes  a  very  comprehensive  fact  if  we 
approach  and  analyse  the  mathematical  processes  as  some 
branch  (M)  of  the  time-binding  process,  which  they  are; 
then  this  process  at  once  becomes  impersonal  and  cosmic, 
because  of  the  time-binding  involved  in  it,  no  matter  what 
time  is  (if  there  is  such  a  thing  as  time). 

Is  the  succession  of  cosmos,  bios,  logos,  time-binding  taking 
us  right  back  to  cosmos  again  ?  Now  if  we  put  psychological 
axioms  into  the  time-binding  apparatus,  it  will  thrash  out 
the  results  correctly,  but  whether  the  results  are  true  is 
another  question. 

To  be  able  to  talk  about  these  problems  I  have  to  intro- 
duce three  new  definitions,  which  are  introduced  only  for 
practical  purposes.  It  may  happen  that  after  some  rewording 
these  definitions  may  become  scientific. 

I  will  try  to  define  "truth"  and  for  this  purpose  I  will 
divide  the  concept  "truth"  into  three  types: 

(1)  Psychological,  or  private,  or  relative  truth,  by  which 
I    will   mean    such    conceptions   of    the   truth    as    any   one 
person   possesses,   but   different   from   other   types   of   truth 
(«i,  «2,  •  •  -On)- 

(2)  Scientific  truth  (as),  by  which  I  will  mean  a  psycho- 
logical truth  when  it  is  approved  by  the  time-binding  facul- 
ties or  apparatus  in  the  present  stage  of  our  development. 
This  scientific  truth  represents  the  "bound-up-time"  in  our 
present  knowledge;  and  finally, 


214  APPENDIX  I 

(3)  The  absolute  truth,  which  will  be  the  final  definition 
of  a  phenomenon  based  upon  the  final  knowledge  of  primal 
causation  valid  in  infinity  (ax). 

For  simplicity's  sake  I  will  use  the  signs  a\,  2.  .     .B  for  the 
"psychological,"    "private,"    or    "relative"    truths,    between 
which,  for  the  moment,  I  will  not  discriminate. 
asi,  s2  •  •  -an  wu"l  be  used  for  scientific  truths,  and  finally 
a^    for  the  absolute  truth  valid  in  infinity. 

To  make  it  easier  to  explain,  I  will  illustrate  the  sug- 
gestions by  an  example.  Let  us  suppose  that  the  human  time- 
binding  capacities  or  energies  in  the  organic  chemistry  cor- 
respond to  radium  in  the  inorganic  chemistry ;  being  of  course 
of  different  dimensions  and  of  absolutely  different  character. 
It  may  happen,  for  it  probably  is  so,  that  the  complex  time- 
binding  energy  has  many  different  stages  of  development  and 
different  kinds  of  "rays"  A,  B,  C,  .  .  .  M.  .  .  . 

Let  us  suppose  that  the  so-called  mental  capacities  are  the 
M  rays  of  the  time-binding  energy;  the  "spiritual"  capacities, 
the  A  rays;  the  "will"  powers,  the  B  rays;  and  so  on.  Psycho- 
logical truths  will  then  be  a  function  of  all  rays  together, 
namely  A  B  C  .  .  .  M  .  .  .  or  /  (A  B  C  .  .  .  M  .  .  .  ), 
the  character  of  any  "truth"  in  question  will  largely  depend 
upon  which  of  these  elements  prevail. 

If  it  were  possible  to  isolate  completely  from  the  other 
rays  the  "mental"  process — the  "logos" — the  M  rays — and 
have  a  complete  abstraction  (which  in  the  present  could  only 
be  in  mathematics),  then  the  work  of  M  could  be  compared 
to  the  work  of  an  impersonal  machine  which  always  gives 
the  same  correctly  shaped  product  no  matter  what  is  the 
material  put  into  it. 

It  is  a  fact  that  mathematics  is  correct — impersonal — pas- 
sionless. Again,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  all  the  basic  axioms 
which  underlie  mathematics  are  "psychological  axioms"; 
therefore  it  may  happen  that  these  "axioms"  are  not  of  the 
dy,  type  but  are  of  the  /  (A  B  C  .  .  .  )  personal  type  and 


MATHEMATICS  AND  TIME-BINDING          215 

this  may  be  why  mathematics  cannot  account  for  psychological 
facts.  If  psychology  is  to  be  an  exact  science  it  must  be 
mathematical  in  principle.  And,  therefore,  mathematics  must 
find  a  way  to  embrace  psychology.  Here  I  will  endeavor  to 
outline  a  way  in  which  this  can  be  done.  To  express  it 
correctly  is  more  than  difficult :  I  beg  the  mathematical  reader 
to  tolerate  the  form  and  look  for  the  sense  or  even  the  feel- 
ings in  what  I  attempt  to  express.  To  make  it  less  shocking 
to  the  ear  of  the  pure  mathematician,  I  will  use  for  the 
"infinitesimals"  the  words  "very  small  numbers,"  for  the 
"finite"  the  words  "normal  numbers"  and  for  the  "trans- 
finite"  the  words  "very  great  numbers."  Instead  of  using 
the  word  "number"  I  will  sometimes  use  the  word  "magni- 
tude" and  under  the  word  "infinity"  I  will  understand  the 
meaning  as  "limitless."  The  base  of  the  whole  of  mathe- 
matics or  rather  the  starting  point  of  mathematics  was 
"psychological  truths,"  axioms  concerning  normal  numbers, 
and  magnitudes  that  were  tangible  for  the  senses.  Here  to 
my  mind  is  to  be  found  the  kernel  of  the  whole  trouble.  The 
base  of  mathematics  was  f  (A  B  C  .  .  .  M  .  ,  .  )  ;  the  work, 
or  the  development,  of  mathematics  is  /  (M)  ;  this  is  the 
reason  for  the  "ghosts"  in  the  background  of  mathematics. 
The  /  (M)  evolved  from  this  /  (A  B  C  .  .  .  M  .  .  .)  base 
a  wonderful  abstract  theory  absolutely  correct  for  the  normal, 
the  very  small,  and  for  the  very  great  numbers.  But  the 
rules  which  govern  the  small  numbers,  the  normal,  or  psycho- 
logical numbers,  and  the  great  numbers,  are  not  the  same. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  in  the  meantime,  the  physical  world, 
the  psychological  world,  is  composed  exclusively  of  very  great 
numbers  and  of  very  small  magnitudes  (atoms,  electrons, 
etc.).  It  seems  to  me  that,  if  we  want  really  to  understand 
the  world  and  man,  we  shall  have  to  start  from  the  begin- 
ning, from  O,  then  take  the  next  very  small  number  as  the  first 
finite  or  "normal  number" ;  then  the  old  finites  or  the  normal 
numbers  would  become  very  great  numbers  and  the  old  very 


216  APPENDIX  I 

great  numbers  would  become  the  very  great  of  the  second 
order  and  so  on.  Such  transposed  mathematics  would  become 
psychological  and  philosophic  mathematics  and  mathematical 
philosophy  would  become  philosophic  mathematics.  The 
immediate  and  most  vital  effect  would  be,  that  the  start 
would  be  made  not  somewhere  in  the  middle  of  the  mag- 
nitudes but  from  the  beginning,  or  from  the  limit  "zero," 
from  the  "O" — from  the  intrinsic  "to  be  or  not  to  be" — 
and  the  next  to  it  would  be  the  very  first  small  magnitude, 
the  physical  and  therefore  psychological  continuum  (I  use 
the  words  physical  continuum  in  the  way  Poincare  used  them) 
would  become  a  mathematical  continuum  in  this  new  philo- 
sophic mathematics.  This  new  branch  of  philosophic,  psycho- 
logical mathematics  would  be  absolutely  rigorous,  correct  and 
true  in  addition  to  which,  maybe,  it  would  change  or  enlarge 
and  make  humanly  tangible  for  the  layman,  the  concept  of 
numbers,  continuum,  infinity,  space,  time  and  so  on.  Such 
a  mathematics  would  be  the  mathematics  for  the  time-binding 
psychology.  Mathematical  philosophy  is  the  highest  phi- 
losophy in  existence;  nevertheless,  it  could  be  changed  to  a 
still  higher  order  in  the  way  indicated  here  and  become  philo- 
sophic or  psychological  mathematics.  This  new  science,  of 
course,  would  not  change  the  ordinary  mathematics  for 
ordinary  purposes.  It  would  be  a  special  mathematics  for  the 
study  of  Man  dealing  only  with  the  "natural  finites"  (the 
old  infinitesimals)  and  great  numbers  of  different  orders 
(including  the  normal  numbers),  but  starting  from  a  real, 
common  base — from  O,  and  next  to  it  very  small  number, 
which  is  a  common  tangible  base  for  psychological  as  well 
as  analytical  truths. 

This  new  philosophic  mathematics  would  eliminate  the 
concept  of  "infinitesimals"  as  such,  which  is  an  artificial  con- 
cept and  is  not  as  a  concept  an  element  of  Nature.  The  so- 
called  infinitesimals  are  Nature's  real,  natural  finites.  In 
mathematics  the  infinitesimals  were  an  analytical — an  "M" — 


MATHEMATICS  AND  TIME-BINDING         217 

time-binding — necessity,  because  of  our  starting  point.  I 
repeat  once  again  that  this  transposition  of  our  starting  point 
would  not  affect  the  normal  mathematics  for  normal  pur- 
poses; it  would  build  rather  a  new  philosophic  mathematics 
rigorously  correct  where  analytical  facts  would  be  also  psy- 
chological facts.  This  new  mathematics  would  not  only  give 
correct  results  but  also  true  results.  Keeping  in  mind  both 
conceptions  of  time,  the  scientific  time  and  the  psychological 
time,  we  may  see  that  the  human  capacity  of  "Time-binding" 
is  a  very  practical  one  and  that  this  time-binding  faculty  is  a 
functional  name  and  definition  for  what  we  broadly  mean 
by  human  "intelligence";  which  makes  it  obvious  that  time 
(in  any  understanding  of  the  term)  is  somehow  very  closely 
related  to  intelligence — the  mental  and  spiritual  activities 
of  man.  All  we  know  about  "time"  will  explain  to  us  a 
great  deal  about  Man,  and  all  we  know  about  Man  will 
explain  to  us  a  great  deal  about  time,  if  we  consider  facts 
alone.  The  "ghosts"  in  the  background  will  rapidly  vanish 
and  become  intelligible  facts  for  philosophic  mathematics. 
The  most  vital  importance,  nevertheless,  is  that  taking  zero 
as  the  limit  and  the  next  to  it  very  small  magnitude  for  the 
real  starting  point,  it  will  give  us  a  mathematical  science  from 
a  natural  base  where  correct  formulas  will  be  also  true  for- 
mulas and  will  correspond  to  psychological  truths. 

We  have  found  that  man  is  an  exponential  function  where 
time  enters  as  an  exponent.  If  we  compare  the  formula  for 
organic  growth  y=ekt,  with  the  formula  "P  RT ,"  we  see 
that  they  are  of  the  same  type  and  the  law  of  organic  growth 
applies  to  the  human  time-binding  energy.  We  see,  too,  that 
the  time-binding  energy  is  also  "alive"  and  multiplying  in 
larger  and  larger  families.  The  formula  for  the  decompos- 
ing of  radium  is  the  same — only  the  exponent  is  negative 
instead  of  positive.  This  fact  is  indeed  very  curious  and  sug- 
gestive. Procreation,  the  organic  growth,  is  also  some  func- 
tion of  time.  I  call  "time-linking"  for  the  sake  of  dif- 


2i8  APPENDIX  I 

ference.  Whether  the  energy  of  procreation  or  that  of 
"time-linking"  can  be  accounted  for  in  units  of  chemical 
energy  taken  up  in  food,  I  do  not  know.  Not  so  with  the 
mind — this  "time-binding,"  higher  exponential  energy,  "able 
to  direct  basic  powers."  If  we  analyse  this  energy,  free  from 
any  speculation,  we  will  find  that  this  higher  energy  which 
is  somehow  directly  connected  with  "time" — no  matter  what 
time  is — is  able  to  produce,  by  transformation  or  by  draw- 
ing on  other  sources  of  energy,  new  energies  unknown 
to  nature.  Thus  the  solar  energy  transformed  into  coal 
is,  for  instance,  transformed  into  the  energy  of  the  drive 
of  a  piston,  or  the  rotary  energy  in  a  steam  engine,  and 
so  on.  It  is  obvious  that  no  amount  of  chemical  energy 
in  food  can  account  for  such  an  energy  as  the  time-binding 
energy.  There  is  only  one  supposition  left,  namely,  that  the 
time-binding  apparatus  has  a  source  for  its  tremendous  energy 
in  the  transformation  of  organic  atoms,  and — what  is  very 
characteristic — the  results  are  time-binding  energies. 

This  supposition  is  almost  a  certainty  because  it  seems  to 
be  the  only  possible  supposition  to  account  for  that  energy. ' 
This  supposition,  which  seems  to  be  the  only  supposition, 
would  bring  us  to  face  striking  facts,  namely,  the  transfor- 
mation of  organic  atoms,  which  means  a  direct  drawing  upon 
the  cosmic  energy;  and  this  cosmic  energy — time — and  in- 
telligence are  somehow  connected — if  not  indeed  equivalent. 
Happily  these  things  can  be  verified  in  scientific  laboratories. 
Radium  was  discovered  only  a  few  years  ago  and  is  still 
very  scarce,  but  the  results  for  science  and  life  are  already 
tremendous  because  scientific  methods  were  applied  in  the 
understanding  and  use  of  it.  We  did  not  use  any  zoological 
or  theological  methods,  but  just  direct,  correct  and  scientific 
methods.  There  is  no  scarcity  in  "human  radium,"  but,  to 
my  knowledge,  physicists  have  never  attempted  to  study  this 
energy  from  that  point  of  view.  I  am  confident  that,  if  once 
they  start,  there  will  be  results  in  which  all  the  so-called 


MATHEMATICS  AND  TIME-BINDING         219 

"supernatural,  spiritual,  psychic"  phenomena,  such  as  are  not 
fakes,  will  become  scientifically  understood  and  will  be  con- 
sciously utilized.  Now  they  are  mostly  wasted  or  only 
played  with.  It  may  happen  that  the  science  of  Man — as 
the  science  of  time-binding — will  disclose  to  us  the  inner  and 
final  secrets — the  final  truth — of  nature,  valid  in  infinity. 

It  is  very  difficult  to  give  in  such  a  book  as  this  an  ade- 
quate list  of  the  literature  which  may  help  to  orient  the 
reader  in  a  general  way  in  the  great  advance  science  has 
made  in  the  last  few  years.  This  book  is  a  pioneer  book  in 
its  own  way,  and  so  there  are  no  books  dealing  directly  with 
its  subject.  There  are  two  branches  of  science  and  one  art 
which  are  fundamental  for  the  further  development  of  the 
subject;  these  two  sciences  are  (i)  Mathematical  philosophy 
and  (2)  Scientific  biology,  the  art  is  the  art  of  creative  engi- 
neering. 

In  mathematical  philosophy  there  are  to  my  knowledge  only 
four  great  mathematical  writers  who  treat  the  subject  as  a 
distinct  science.  They  are  two  English  scientists,  Bertrand 
Russell  and  A.  N.  Whitehead;  one  Frenchman,  Henri  Poin- 
care  (deceased)  ;  and  one  American,  Professor  C.  J.  Keyser. 
Messrs.  Russell  and  Whitehead  approach  the  problems  from 
a  purely  logical  point  of  view  and  therein  lies  the  peculiar 
value  of  their  work.  Henri  Poincare  was  a  physicist  (as 
well  as  a  mathematician)  and,  therefore,  approaches  the  prob- 
lems somewhat  from  a  physicist's  point  of  view,  a  circum- 
stance giving  his  philosophy  its  particular  value.  Professor 
Keyser  approaches  the  problems  from  both  the  logical  and 
the  warmly  human  points  of  view ;  in  this  is  the  great  human 
and  practical  value  of  his  work. 

These  four  scientists  are  unique  in  their  respective  elabora- 
tions and  elucidations  of  mathematical  philosophy.  It  is  not 
for  me  to  advise  the  reader  what  selections  to  make,  for  if 
a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  subject  is  desired  the  reader 
should  read  all  these  books,  but  not  all  readers  are  willing 


220  APPENDIX  I 

to  make  that  effort  toward  clear  thinking  (which  in  the 
meantime  will  remain  of  the  highest  importance  in  science). 
Some  readers  will  wish  to  select  for  themselves  and  to  facili- 
tate their  selection  I  will  lay  out  a  "Menu"  of  this  intellectual 
feast  by  giving  in  some  cases  the  chapter  heads. 

For  many  temporary  reasons  I  was  not  able,  before  going 
into  print,  to  give  a  fuller  list  of  the  writings  of  those  four 
unique  men;  but  there  is  no  stroke  of  their  pen  but  which 
should  be  read  with  great  attention — besides  which  there  is 
a  very  valuable  literature  about  their  work. 

(i)   The  purely  mathematical  foundation: 

RUSSELL,  BERTRAND. 

"The    Principles    of   Mathematics."     Cambridge    Uni- 
versity, 1903. 

(I  am  not  giving  any  selections  from  the  contents  of 
this  book  because  this  book  should,  without  doubt, 
be  read  by  every  one  interested  in  mathematical 
philosophy.) 

"The  Problems  of  Philosophy."     H.  Holt  &  Co.,  N.  Y., 
1912. 

"Our  Knowledge  of  the  External  World,  as  a  Field  for 
Scientific  Method  in  Philosophy."     Chicago,  1914. 

"Introduction  to  Mathematical  Philosophy."   Macmillan, 
,  N.Y. 

Selection  from  contents: 

Definition  of  number.  The  Definition  of  order. 
Kinds  of  relations.  Infinite  cardinal  numbers.  Infi- 
nite series  and  ordinals.  Limits  and  continuity. 
The  axiom  of  infinity  and  logical  types.  Classes. 
Mathematics  and  logic. 

"Mysticism  and  Logic."     Longmans  Green  &  Co.     1919. 

N.  Y. 

Selection  from  contents: 

Mathematics  and  the  metaphysicians.  On  scientific 
method  in  philosophy.  The  ultimate  constituents 
of  matter.  On  the  notion  of  cause. 


MATHEMATICS  AND  TIME-BINDING         221 

WHITEHEAD,  ALFRED  N. 

"An  Introduction  to  Mathematics."     Henry  Holt  &  Co. 
1911.     N.Y. 

"The  Organization  of  Thought  Educational  and  Scienti- 
fic."    London,  1917. 
Selections  from  contents: 

The  principles  of  mathematics  in  relation  to  element- 
ary teaching.  The  organization  of  thought.  The 
anatomy  of  some  scientific  ideas.  Space,  time,  and 
relativity. 

"An    Enquiry    Concerning    the    Principles    of   Natural 

Knowledge."     Cambridge,  1919. 
Selection  from  contents: 

The  traditions  of  science.  The  data  of  science.  The 
method  of  extensive  abstraction.  The  theory  of 
objects. 

"The  Concept  of  Nature."     Cambridge,  1920. 
Selection  from  contents: 

Nature  and  thought.  Time.  The  method  of  exten- 
sive abstraction.  Space  and  motion.  Objects.  The 
ultimate  physical  concepts. 


"Principia   Mathematical'     By  A.   N.   Whitehead   and 

Bertrand  Russell.  Cambridge,  1910-1913. 
This  monumental  work  stands  alone.  "As  a  work 
of  constructive  criticism  it  has  never  been  surpassed. 
To  every  one  and  especially  to  philosophers  and  men 
of  natural  science,  it  is  an  amazing  revelation  of  how 
the  familiar  terms  with  which  they  deal  plunge  their 
roots  far  into  the  darkness  beneath  the  surface  of 
common  sense.  It  is  a  noble  monument  to  the  criti- 
cal spirit  of  science  and  to  the  idealism  of  our  time." 

"Human  Worth  of  Rigorous  Thinking."     C.  J.  Keyser. 

(2)  The  physicist's  point  of  view: 

POINCAR^,  HENRI. 

"The    Foundations    of   Science."    The    Science    Press, 

N.  Y.,  1913. 

Selection  from  contents: 
I.  Science  and  hypothesis.     Number  and  magnitude. 


222  APPENDIX  I 

Space.  Force.  Nature.  II.  The  value  of  science. 
The  mathematical  sciences.  The  physical  sciences. 
The  objective  value  of  science.  III.  Science  and 
method.  Science  and  the  scientist.  Mathematical  rea- 
soning. The  new  mechanics.  Astronomic  science. 

(3)  The  human,  civilizing,  practical  life,  point  of  view: 

KEYSER,  CASSIUS  J. 

"Science  and  Religion:  The  Rational  and  the  Super- 
rational."  The  Yale  University  Press. 

"The  New  Infinity  and  the  Old  Theology."  The  Yale 
University  Press. 

"The  Human  Worth  of  Rigorous  Thinking."     Essays 
and  Addresses.     Columbia  University  Press,  1916. 
Selection  from  contents: 

The  human  worth  of  rigorous  thinking.  The  human 
significance  of  mathematics.  The  walls  of  the  world; 
or  concerning  the  figure  and  the  dimensions  of  the 
Universe  of  space.  The  universe  and  beyond.  The 
existence  of  the  hypercosmic.  The  axiom  of  infinity: 
A  new  presupposition  of  thought.  Research  in  Ameri- 
can Universities.  Mathematical  productivity  in  the 
United  States. 

"Mathematical  Philosophy,  the  Study  of  Fate  and  Free- 
dom. Lectures  for  Educated  Laymen."  Forth- 
coming Book. 

Selection  from  contents  of  general  interest. 
The  mathematical  obligations  of  philosophy.  Human- 
istic and  industrial  education.  Logic  the  muse  of 
thought.  Radiant  aspects  of  an  over-world. — Veri- 
fiers and  falsifiers.  Significance  and  nonsense. — 
Distinction  of  logical  and  psychological.  A  diamond 
test  of  harmony. — Distinction  of  doctrine  and  method. 
— Theoretical  and  practical  doubt. — Mathematical 
philosophy  in  the  role  of  critic.  A  world  un  criticised — 
the  garden  of  the  devil.  "Supersimian"  Wisdom. 
Autonomous  truth  and  autonomous  falsehood.  Other 
Varieties  of  truth  and  untruth.  Mathematics  as  the 
study  of  fate  and  freedom.  The  prototype  of  rea- 
soned discourse  often  disguised  as  in  the  Declaration 
of  Independence,  the  Constitution  of  the  United 


MATHEMATICS  AND  TIME-BINDING         223 

States,  the  Origin  of  Species,  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount. 
— Nature  of  mathematical  transformation.  No  trans- 
formation, no  thinking.  Transformation  law  essen- 
tially psychological,  Relation  function  and  trans- 
formation as  three  aspects  of  one  thing.  Its  study, 
the  common  enterprise  of  science.  The  static  and 
the  dynamic  worlds.  The  problem  of  time  and 
kindred  problems.  Importation  of  time  and  sup- 
pression of  time  as  the  classic  devices  of  sciences. — 
The  nature  of  invariance.  The  ages-old  problem  of 
permanence  and  change.  The  quest  of  what  abides 
in  a  fluctuant  world  as  the  binding  thread  of  human 
history.  The  tie  of  comradeship  among  the  enter- 
prises of  human  spirit. — The  concept  of  a  group. 
The  notion  simply  exemplified  in  many  fields,  is 
"Mind"  a  group.  The  philosophy  of  the  cosmic 
year. — Limits  and  limit  processes  omnipresent  as 
ideals  and  idealization,  in  all  thought  and  human 
aspiration.  Ideals  the  flint  of  reality. — Mathemati- 
cal infinity,  its  dynamic  and  static  aspects.  Need  of 
history  of  the  Imperious  concept.  The  role  of  infinity 
in  a  mighty  poem. — Meaning  of  dimensionality. 
Distinction  of  imagination  and  conception.  Logical 
existence  and  sensuous  existence.  Open  avenues  to 
unimaginable  worlds. — The  theory  of  logical  types. 
A  supreme  application  of  it  to  definition  of  man,  and 
the  science  of  human  welfare. — The  psychology  of 
mathematics  and  the  mathematics  of  psychology. 
Both  of  them  in  their  infancy.  Consequent  retard- 
ation of  science.  The  symmetry  of  thought.  The 
asymmetry  of  imagination. — Science  and  engineering. 
Science  as  engineering  in  preparation.  Engineering 
as  science  in  action.  Mathematics  the  guide  of  the 
engineer.  Engineering  the  guide  of  humanity.  Hu- 
manity the  civilizing  or  Time-Binding  class  of  life. 
Qualities  essential  to  engineering  leadership.  The 
ethics  of  the  art.  The  engineer  as  educator,  as 
scientist,  as  philosopher,  as  psychologist,  as  economist, 
as  statesman,  as  mathematical  thinker — as  a  Man. 


APPENDIX  II 
BIOLOGY  AND  TIME-BINDING 

TTHE  life  of  one  man  is  short,  and  to  very  few  is  it  given 
to  achieve  much  in  their  lifetime.  Extensive  achievements 
are  made  almost  entirely  by  many  men  taking  up  the  work 
done  by  a  discoverer.  In  such  a  case,  we  arrive  at  a  com- 
plete "truth,"  not  by  the  production  of  one  man  but  by  a 
chain  of  men,  but  the  initial  discovery  not  only  has  to  be 
produced  but  correctly  defined  before  it  can  be  used  and 
that  is  the  important  point  to  be  made.  What  we  do  not 
realize  is  the  tremendous  amount  of  mental  work  that  is  lost 
by  an  incorrect  use  of  words. 

Human  thought — that  unique,  subtle  and  yet  most  ener- 
getic phenomenon  of  nature — is  in  the  main  wantonly  wasted, 
because  we  do  not  use,  or  take  pains  to  use,  suitable  lan- 
guage ;  at  the  same  time,  false  definitions  lead  to  consequences 
not  merely  wasteful  but  positively  harmful.  When  ideas  and 
facts  are  falsely  defined,  they  tend  to  bring  us  to  false  con- 
clusions, and  false  conclusions  lead  us  in  wrong  directions, 
and  life  and  knowledge  greatly  suffer  in  consequence.  Our 
progress  is  not  a  well  ordered  pursuit  after  truth,  as  pure 
chance  plays  too  large  a  part  in  it. 

Until  lately,  logic  was  supposed  to  be  the  science  of  correct 
thinking,  but  modern  thought  has  progressed  so  far  that  the 
old  logic  is  not  able  to  handle  the  great  accumulated  volume 
— the  great  complicated  mass  of  existing  ideas  and  facts — and 
so  we  are  forced  to  look  for  another  instrument  much  more 
expedient  and  powerful.  There  is  no  need  to  establish  a 
new  science  to  replace  logic;  we  simply  have  to  look  closer 

224 


BIOLOGY  AND  TIME-BINDING  225 

into  the  sciences  at  hand  and  realize  the  fact,  which  was 
with  us  all  the  time,  namely,  that  mathematics  and  mathe- 
matical reasoning  is  nothing  else  than  the  true  logic  of  nature 
— nature's  universal  tongue — the  one  means  of  expression  that 
is  the  same  for  all  peoples.  This  is  not  a  play  on  words, 
it  is  a  fact  which,  after  investigation,  everybody  must  admit. 
Everybody  who  wants  to  think  logically  must  think  mathe- 
matically or  give  up  any  pretense  of  correct  thinking — there 
is  no  escape  and  all  who  refuse  to  investigate  the  justice  of 
this  statement  put  themselves  outside  the  pale  of  logically 
thinking  people.  The  application  of  rigorous  thinking  to  life 
will  even  revolutionize  scientific  methods  by  the  introduction 
of  right  definitions,  correct  classifications,  just  language,  and 
so  will  lead  to  trustworthy  results.  Very  probably  all  our 
doctrines  and  creeds  will  have  to  be  revised;  some  rejected, 
some  rectified,  some  broadened;  bringing  about  unanimity 
of  all  sciences  and  thus  greatly  increasing  their  effectiveness 
in  the  pursuit  of  truth.  This  application  of  mathematics  to 
life  will  even  revolutionize  mathematics  itself.  In  App.  I 
it  is  suggested  tentatively  how  this  may  be  accomplished. 

As  the  seemingly  ultimate  and  highest  experimentally 
known  energy  is  the  human  time-binding  energy,  this  new 
concept  may  lead  to  a  change  in  our  present  concepts  of 
matter,  space  and  time,  in  much  the  same  way  as  the  dis- 
covery of  radium  has  affected  them.  This  problem  can  be 
solved  only  by  scientific  experiments  with  the  time-binding 
energy. 

In  many,  even  in  most,  of  the  cases,  the  analysis  of  these 
phenomena  presents  great  technical  difficulty,  but  why  con- 
fuse our  minds  by  being  afraid  of,  or  being  a  slave  of  words? 
If  instead  of  calling  wine  wine,  we  called  it  by  its  chemical 
formula,  would  this,  in  any  way,  change  the  quality  of  wine? 
Of  course  not.  All  the  "qualities"  will  remain  because  they 
are  facts,  and  cannot  be  altered  by  words. 

A  most  pathetic  picture  of  the  havoc  and  chaos  which 


226  APPENDIX  II 

wrong  use  of  words  brings  into  life  and  science  is  exhibited 
in  all  fields  of  thought  by  the  endless  and  bitter  fighting  over 
words  not  well  defined.  Mathematics  has  been  able  to  make 
its  most  stupendous  achievements  because  of  its  method  of 
exact  analysis  of  the  continuum,  dimensions,  classes,  rela- 
tions, functions,  transfinite  numbers,  etc.,  and  also  of  space 
and  time.  Hitherto,  not  all  of  these  conceptions  in  their 
sharply  defined  form  have  had  direct  application  to  our  daily 
life  or  to  our  world  conception.  The  thoughts  expressed  in 
App.  I  may  suggest  this  "missing  link" — connecting  mathe- 
matics more  intimately  with  life. 

Modern  science  knows  that  all  energies  can  be  somehow 
transformed  from  one  kind  to  another  and  that  all  of  them 
represent  one  type  of  energetic  phenomena,  no  matter  what 
is  the  origin  of  each.  For  example,  a  galvanic  or  chemical 
battery  produces  the  same  kind  of  electricity  as  the  mechan- 
ical process  of  friction  or  the  interaction  of  cosmic  laws  as 
in  the  dynamo.  In  some  instances,  when  our  systems  are  suit- 
ably adjusted,  the  transformations  are  reversible,  that  is,  the 
energy  results  in  a  chemical  process — an  accumulator;  the 
chemical  process  results  in  electricity — the  galvanic  battery; 
motion  results  in  electricity — the  dynamo;  electricity  results 
in  motion — the  electric  motor;  etc.  We  know  all  energies 
are  somehow  related  to  each  other,  in  that  their  transforma- 
tion is  possible.  The  effects  produced  by  the  same  type  of 
energy  are  absolutely  the  same — no  matter  what  its  origin. 
The  marvel  of  an  electric  lamp  is  the  same  marvel,  whether 
the  origin  of  the  electricity  be  chemical,  mechanical  or  cos- 
mic as  in  the  dynamo.  The  experiments  in  scientific  biology 
have  proved  this  to  be  true  in  living  organisms  and  just  this 
is  the  tremendous  importance  of  the  discoveries  in  scientific 
biology.  Light  and  other  energies  react  on  organisms  in  the 
same  way  as  the  chemical  reactions  and  these  phenomena 
are  reversible.  More  than  that,  living  complex  organisms 
have  been  produced  which  grew  to  maturity  through  a  chemi- 


BIOLOGY  AND  TIME-BINDING  227 

cal  or  mechanical  treatment  of  the  egg,  and  this  has  been 
accomplished  in  the  infancy  of  scientific  biology!  (See  The 
Organisms  as  a  Whole,  by  Jacques  Loeb.) 

All  phenomena  in  nature  are  natural  and  should  be  ap- 
proached as  such.     The  human  mind  is  at  least  an  energy 
which  can  direct  other  energies;  it  is  incorrect  and  mislead- 
ing to  call  it  supernatural.     It  is  of  course  true  that  we  do 
not  fully  understand  the  nature  of  the  human  mind  and  we 
shall  learn  to  understand  it  when  and  only  when  we  acquire 
sense  enough  to  recognize  it  as  natural.     If  we  persist  in 
saying  and  believing  that  the  "spiritual  evidences  cannot  be 
explained  on  a  material  base,"  this  statement  should  be  equally 
applicable  to  electricity  or  radium.     If  this  statement  is  false 
for  these  phenomena,  it  is  equally  false  for  the  mind  or  the 
so-called  spiritual  and  will  powers.     The  scientific  under- 
standing of  these  phenomena  will  not  "degrade"  these  phe- 
nomena, because  that  cannot  be  done.    Facts  remain  facts  and 
no  scientific  explanation  of  a  phenomenon  can  lower  or  de- 
grade that  which   is  a  fact.     Electricity  is  electricity  and 
nothing  else,  no  matter  what  its  origin ;  human  time-binding 
energies    (embracing  all   faculties)    are  the  highest   of   the 
known    energies — equally    magnificent    and    astonishing — no 
matter  what  the  base ;  and  the  scientific  understanding  of  them 
will  only  add  to  our  respect  for  them  and  for  ourselves;  it 
will   unmistakably  help  us  to  develop  them  indefinitely  by 
mathematical  analysis.     The  base  is  not  the  phenomenon — 
sulphuric   acid    and    zinc   are    not    electricity;    time-binding 
energies  are  not  a  pound  of  beefsteak,  although  a  pound  of 
beefsteak  may  help  to  save  life  and  be  therefore  instrumental 
in  the  production  of  a  poem  or  of  a  sonata ;  but  by  no  means 
can  a  beefsteak  be  taken  for  either  of  them. 

I  have  attempted,  with  some  measure  of  success  I  trust, 
to  solve  these  problems  in  science  and  life;  the  results  are 
astonishing,  as  they  lead  us  to  a  much  higher  and  more  em- 
bracing ethics  than  society  has  ever  had.  By  this  analysis 


228  APPENDIX  II 

I  prove  that  the  understanding  of  this  most  stupendous  but 
NATURAL  phenomenon  of  human  life  brings  us  to  the  scien- 
tifical  source  of  ethics  and  I  prove  that  the  so-called  "highest 
ideals  of  humanity"  have  nothing  of  "sentimentalism"  or  of 
the  "supernatural"  in  them,  but  are  exclusively  the  fulfilment 
of  the  natural  laws  for  the  human  class  of  life.  The  recog- 
nition of  the  fact  that  the  phenomena  of  the  human  mind 
are  natural  and  as  such  conform  to  natural  law  has  the  fur- 
ther advantage  over  the  "supernatural"  attitude  in  that  we 
can  no  more  evade  a  law  of  human  nature  than  the  law  of 
gravity;  in  other  words,  human  ethics  will  have  the  validity 
of  natural  law.  With  the  supernatural  attitude,  it  was  simple 
enough  to  avoid  the  issues  of  life,  by  a  simple  statement — "L 
do  not  believe" — and  that  was  enough  to  break  all  bonds  and 
be  free  from  the  "supernatural  morale" — but  to  get  away 
from  the  "natural  morale"  and  remain  HUMAN  is  IMPOS- 
SIBLE. Whereas,  with  an  artificially  formulated  morale  it 
was  easy  enough  to  break  away  by  a  simple  mental  specula- 
tion, and  feel  perfectly  satisfied  as  long  as  one  escaped  the 
jail;  with  a  morale  made  clear  that  it  is  a  NATURAL  LAW  for 
the  human  class  of  life,  the  curtain  of  sophistry  and  specu- 
lation is  removed  and  everyone  who  breaks  away  from  the 

NATURAL      LAWS    FOR   HUMANS,   WILL   KNOW    BY    HIMSELF, 
THAT  HE  IS  OUTSIDE  THE  LAW FOR  HUMANS. 

Engineers  are  not  metaphysicians,  their  field  is  not  one  of 
clever  argument  but  one  of  proved  facts;  their  work  is  not 
to  befog  the  air  with  cloudy  expressions  or  sophistry,  but  to 
create;  their  method  is  scientific  and  their  tool  is  mathe- 
matics. It  is  known  that  in  remote  antiquity,  in  some  temples 
electrical  phenomena  were  known  and  were  used  to  keep 
the  ignorant  masses  in  awe  and  obedience.  Shall  we  follow 
the  methods  used  by  those  magicians  or  shall  we  squarely 
face  facts?  Shall  we  look  upon  life,  and  the  usually  so-called 
mental,  spiritual  phenomena,  etc.,  as  supernatural,  simply 
because  we  do  not  understand  them?  It  seems  evident  that 


BIOLOGY  AND  TIME-BINDING  229 

everything  which  exists  in  nature,  is  natural,  no  matter  how 
simple  or  complicated  a  phenomenon  it  is;  and  on  no  occa- 
sion can  the  so-called  "supernatural"  be  anything  else  than 
a  completely  natural  law,  though  it  may,  at  the  moment,  be 
above  or  beyond  our  present  understanding.  The  attitude 
of  mind  which  admits  the  supernatural  blinds  and  frustrates 
any  analysis  or  any  attempt  at  analysis.  The  unprejudiced 
analysis  of  the  so-called  "supernatural"  does  not  alter  any 
part  of  the  strange  and  high  functions  of  it.  The  phenomena 
of  the  human  time-binding  energy  are  and  will  remain  the 
most  precious,  subtle  and  highest  of  known  functions,  no 
matter  what  the  origin.  Facts  may  not  be  denied  or  falsified 
if  analysis  is  to  arrive  at  correct  conclusions.  The  high 
dimensionality  of  the  human  mind,  the  so-called  spiritual  and 
will  powers,  are  facts  and  must  be  accepted  as  such.  It  is 
about  time  to  establish  an  exact  science  to  deal  with  them. 
The  problems  of  animal  life  were  approached  without  preju- 
dice, no  supernatural  "spark"  was  bothering  us  in  our  analysis 
— an  animal  was  an  animal  and  nothing  else — we  did  not 
intermix  dimensions,  therefore  we  see  that  the  "social  struc- 
ture" of  the  animals  on  a  farm  never  breaks  down  as  they 
are  managed  on  a  scientific  base  with  an  understanding  of 
their  proper  standards.  Animals  to-day  live  more  happily 
than  man.  We  don't  allow  animals  to  practice  the  "survival 
of  the  fittest,"  or  "competition,"  which  is  far  too  destructive. 
Our  present  social  system  imposes  these  disastrous  methods 
upon  man  alone,  and  the  result  is  that  the  hideous  proverb 
"Homo  homini  lupus"  has  become  true. 

In  modern  science  facts  are  not  wanting,  we  have  first  but 
to  know  them.  If  we  take,  for  example,  sulphuric  acid  and 
zinc  and  make  what  we  call  a  galvanic  battery,  we  see  that 
from  two  chemical  substances  a  third — a  salt — is  made  in 
addition  to  which  we  have  a  peculiar  energy  produced  called 
electricity.  Who  does  not  know  the  marvelous  properties 
of  this  phenomenon? 


230  APPENDIX  II 

Scientific  biology  has  made  tremendous  progress  lately; 
engineers  cannot  afford  to  ignore  the  facts  established  in  labo- 
ratory researches.  The  problem  of  "life"  and  of  other  ener- 
gies, hitherto  considered  "supernatural,"  is  well  in  hand,  and 
proves  to  be  none  the  less  astonishing  though  entirely  natural. 
A  number  of  scientists  all  over  the  world  are  working  at  this 
problem  and  the  scientific  facts  which  they  have  established, 
and  which  cannot  now  be  denied,  belong  to-day  to  the  realm 
of  practical  life.  Engineers,  of  course,  have  to  know  these 
facts;  mathematicians  have  to  establish  correct  dimensions  in 
the  study  of  all  the  sciences  and  people  will  have  to  study 
mathematical  philosophy;  only  then  can  the  process  of  inte- 
gration in  any  phase  of  thought  be  made  without  mistakes. 
There  is  no  escape  from  that,  if  truth  is  what  we  really  want. 
But  here  one  objection  may  be  raised,  an  objection  which 
for  some  is  a  serious  one  indeed ;  namely,  what  will  take  the 
place  of  the  old  philosophy,  law  and  ethics,  if  human  life 
is  nothing  else  than  a'  physico-chemical  process?  To  quote 
Doctor  Jacques  Loeb  from  his  Mechanistic  Conception  of 
Life:  "If  on  the  basis  of  a  serious  survey,  this  question  (that 
all  life  phenomena  can  be  unequivocally  explained  in  physico- 
chemical  terms — Author)  can  be  answered  in  the  affirmative, 
our  social  and  ethical  life  will  have  to  be  put  on  a  scientific 
basis  and  our  rules  of  conduct  must  be  brought  into  harmony 
with  the  results  of  scientific  biology.  Not  only  is  the  mechan- 
istic conception  of  life  compatible  with  ethics,  it  seems  the 
only  conception  of  life  which  can  lead  to  an  understanding  of 
the  source  of  ethics." 

I  hope  to  have  proved  in  this  book  that  scientific  ethics  is 
based  on  natural  laws  for  the  human  class  of  life;  that  it  is 
based  on  the  experimentally  proved  fact  that  Man  is  a  Time- 
binder,  naturally  active  as  such  in  time;  and  that  this  con- 
cept or  definition  of  Man  is  rigorously  scientific  and  accounts 
for  the  highest  functions  of  man — the  highest  of  the  mental 


BIOLOGY  AND  TIME-BINDING  231 

and  spiritual  perfections — without  the  need  of  any  "super- 
natural" hypothesis. 

Scientific  biology  proves  the  fact  that  life  and  all  of  its 
phenomena  are  the  results  of  some  special  physico-chemical 
processes,  which  manifest  themselves  in  some  peculiar  energies, 
of  which  the  human  mind  is  the  highest  known  form.  These 
processes  are  known  to  be  reversible,  in  that  some  of  these 
peculiar  energies  cause  physico-chemical  changes  in  their  own 
base;  the  process  involved  I  propose  to  call  biolysis,  as  I  pro- 
pose to  call  biolyte  the  substances  produced.  These  phenom- 
ena have  a  parallel  analogy  in  inorganic  chemistry — in  elec- 
tricity— the  difference  being  only  in  the  scale  or  dimension. 
When  an  electric  current  is  passed  through  a  special  battery 
called  an  accumulator  or  reversible  battery,  chemical  changes 
occur,  in  that  new  compounds  are  formed  which  possess  a 
reversible  capacity;  namely,  in  reproducing  the  former  mate- 
rials— that  is,  electricity  is  generated.  This  process  of  form- 
ing chemical  substances  by  the  passing  of  an  electrical  current 
is  called  electrolysis  and  the  product  so  produced  is  called 
electrolyte.  At  the  same  time  it  is  a  known  fact  that  organic 
chemistry  is  infinitely  more  complicated  and  variable  than 
inorganic  chemistry.  The  energy  produced  by  the  reactions 
of  some  organic  chemical  groups  are,  therefore,  of  a  more 
complicated  character  and  of  another  dimension.  One  of 
these  energies  of  organic  chemistry  which  lately  has  come  into 
the  scope  of  scientific  analysis  is  called  life — its  physico- 
chemical  base  is  the  protoplasm,  which  result  I  call  the 
"time-linking"  capacity  or  energy.  This  name  is  important 
for  the -consequences  it  will  bring  about  later  on.  The  time- 
binding  capacity  or  energy  of  man  (no  matter  what  time 
is — if  it  is) ,  which  is  unique  to  man,  is  a  most  subtle  com- 
plex ;  it  is  the  highest  known  energy  and  probably  has  many 
subdivisions.  Ears  are  sensitive  to  the  vibration  of  the 
air.  Eyes  are  sensitive  to  the  more  subtle  vibrations  of 


232  APPENDIX  II 

light;  in  a  similar  way,  the  time-binding  apparatus  is  sen- 
sitive to  the  most  subtle  energies;  besides  which  it  has  the 
capacity  to  register  not  only  all  of  our  sensations  but  also 
the  time-binding  energies  of  other  people;  and  it  apparently 
has  the  capacity  to  register  the  energies  of  the  universe. 

Here  again  we  see  the  same  continuity  of  phenomena;  the 
protoplasm  as  a  complex  organic  physico-chemical  unit  which 
has  the  peculiarity  to  "live,"  to  grow  and  multiply  "autono- 
mously" and  this  same  autonomous  peculiarity  applies  to  the 
time-binding  energy;  it  grows  and  multiplies  "autonomously" 
in  its  own  dimension.  The  time-binding  energy  is  a  complex 
radiating  energy  somewhat  like  the  emanations  of  radium 
and  it  probably  also  has  many  different  subdivisions.  Note 
that  the  transformation  of  the  atom  or  the  transformation  of 
radio-active  substances  after  passing  different  stages,  is  not 
complete  but  probably  ends  in  lead,  whereas  the  transforma- 
tion which  occurs  in  the  production  of  the  time-binding  energy 
probably  is  complete  or  nearly  complete  and  is  that  which  I 
call  the  time-binding  energy..  (See  App.  /.)  All  the  higher 
characteristics  of  man  which  it  is  customary  to  call  the  "men- 
tal, spiritual  and  will  powers,"  etc.,  are  embraced  in  this 
exact  definition  of  energy — in  the  capacity  of  time-binding. 
A  diagram  will  better  explain  the  continuity,  evolution  and 
mechanism  of  this  time-binding  energy. 

Cx  is  the  physico-chemical  base  (for  simplicity  I  represent 
the  whole  complex  as  one  base)  of  the  human  time-binding 
energy.  7\  is  the  thought  produced  by  a  physico-chemical 
process  (corresponding,  for  illustration's  sake  only,  to  elec- 
tricity produced  by  a  galvanic  battery).  The  thought  7\ 
in  turn  produces  a  physico-chemical  effect  El  on  the  base 
C^  (corresponding  for  the  same  reason  to  electrolysis  and 
electrolyte  in  electricity).  C^  and  Ei  combined,  or  C2  pro- 
duces T2  which  again  in  turn  affects  the  base  and  produces 
a  physico-chemical  effect  E2,  this  new  combination  produces 
the  energy  T8,  and  so  on  ...  theoretically  without  limits, 


BIOLOGY  AND  TIME-BINDING 


233 


234  APPENDIX  II 

as  long  as  there  is  any  source  of  energy  upon  which  this 
special  energy  can  draw.  This  theory  which  I  call  the 
"spiral  theory"  represents  a  suggestive  working  mechanism 
of  the  time-binding  energy  and  is  in  accord  with  the  latest 
scientific  discoveries.  It  explains  the  processes  of  all  the 
mental  and  so-called  spiritual  energies  which  have  been  such 
a  puzzle  to  humanity,  and  it  also  explains  other  phenomena 
which,  until  now,  have  had  no  scientific  explanation  whatever. 
The  animals  are  not  time-binding,  they  have  not  the 
capacity  of  the  "spiral";  therefore,  they  have  not  autonomous 
progress.  At  the  same  time,  it  will  be  obvious  that  if  we 
teach  humans  false  ideas,  we  affect  their  time-binding  ca- 
pacities and  energies  very  seriously,  by  affecting  in  a  wrong 
way  the  physico-chemical  base.  This  energy  is  so  peculiar 
that  it  embraces,  if  I  may  use  the  old  expression,  the  highest 
ideals  (when  the  time-binding  energy  is  unobstructed  and  is 
allowed  to  work  normally),  and  also  the  most  criminal  ideas 
(when  the  time-binding  energy  is  obstructed  by  false  teach- 
ings and  in  consequence  works  abnormally).  We  cannot  make 
animals  moral  or  immoral  because  they  have  not  this  time- 
binding  capacity.  Whereas  human  progress  can  be  very 
seriously  affected  by  false  ideas;  in  other  words,  the  biolyte 
of  false  teachings  in  the  animal  dimension  must  be  very  dif- 
ferent from  the  biolyte  of  true  ideas  in  the  human  dimension. 
Nature  or  nature's  laws  happily  cannot  be  completely  devi- 
ated from  or  violated — the  time-binding  energy  cannot  be 
completely  suppressed  in  the  time-binding  class  of  life.  The 
false  teachings  that  we  are  animals  and  essentially  brutal  and 
selfish  can,  of  course,  degrade  human  nature  not  only  down 
to  the  animal  level  but  lower  still.  Happily  now  science  can 
explain  and  prove  how  fundamentally  fiendish  in  effect  are 
these  teachings  in  the  life  and  progress  of  human  beings. 
It  will  be  a  shock  to  those  who  teach,  preach  and  practice 
animal  standards  and  in  the  same  breath  contradict  them- 
selves in  any  talking  about  "immortality"  and  "salvation"; 


BIOLOGY  AND  TIME-BINDING  235 

a  little  thought  makes  it  perfectly  clear  that  "animal  stand- 
ards" and  "salvation"  or  "immortality"  simply  exclude  each 
other.  With  the  natural  law  of  time-binding  realized,  the 
way  is  open  to  entering  scientifically  upon  the  problem  of 
immortality.  The  time-binding  energies  as  well  as  "life" 
follow  the  same  type  of  exponential  function.  "The  con- 
stant synthesis  then  of  specific  material  from  simple  com- 
pounds of  a  non-specific  character  is  the  chief  feature  by 
which  living  matter  differs  from  non-living  matter.  .  .  .  This 
problem  of  synthesis  leads  to  the  assumption  of  immortality 
of  the  living  cell,  since  there  is  no  a  priori  reason  why  this 
synthesis  should  ever  come  to  a  standstill  of  its  own  accord 
as  long  as  enough  food  is  available  and  the  proper  outside 
physical  conditions  are  guaranteed.  .  .  .  The  idea  that  the 
body  cells  are  naturally  immortal  and  die  only  if  exposed 
to  extreme  injuries  such  as  prolonged  lack  of  oxygen  or  too 
high  a  temperature  helps  to  make  one  problem  more  intel- 
ligible. The  medical  student,  who  for  the  first  time  realizes 
that  life  depends  upon  that  one  organ,  the  heart,  doing  its 
duty  incessantly  for  the  seventy  years  or  so  allotted  to  man, 
is  amazed  at  the  precariousness  of  our  existence.  It  seems 
indeed  uncanny  that  so  delicate  a  mechanism  should  function 
so  regularly  for  so  many  years.  The  mysticism  connected 
with  this  and  other  phenomena  of  adaptation  would  disappear 
if  we  would  be  certain  that  all  cells  are  really  immortal 
and  that  the  fact  which  demands  an  explanation  is  not  the 
continued  activity  but  the  cessation  of  activity  in  death.  Thus 
we  see  that  the  idea  of  the  immortality  of  the  body  cell  if 
it  can  be  generalized  may  be  destined  to  become  one  of  the 
main  supports  for  a  complete  physico-chemical  analysis  of  life 
phenomena  since  it  makes  the  durability  of  organisms  intel- 
ligible. .  .  ."  (The  Organism  as  a  Whole,  by  Jacques  Loeb.) 
The  outlook  for  those  who  live  and  profess  selfish,  greedy, 
"space-binding  animal  standards"  is  not  very  promising  as 
disclosed  by  the  "spiral,"  but  unhappily  we  cannot  help  them; 


236  APPENDIX  II 

only  time-binding— only  fulfilling  the  natural  laws  for 
humans — can  give  them  the  full  benefit  of  their  natural 
capacities  by  which  they  will  be  able  to  raise  themselves  above 
animals  and  their  fate. 

The  results  obtained  in  scientific  biological  researches  are 
growing  very  rapidly  and  every  advance  in  their  knowledge 
proves  this  theory  to  be  true.  If  they  differ  in  a  few  instances 
it  is  not  because  the  principles  of  this  theory  are  wrong,  but 
because  they  intermix  dimensions  and  use  words  not  suf- 
ficiently defined  which  always  results  in  confusion  and  the 
checking  of  the  progress  of  science. 

Most  of  the  problems  touched  upon  in  this  appendix  from 
a  mathematical  point  of  view  are  based  upon  laboratory  facts. 
We  have  only  to  collect  them  and  there  is  little  need  of 
imagination  to  see  their  general  bearing.  Since  we  have  dis- 
covered the  fact  that  Man  is  a  time-binder  (no  matter  what 
time  is)  and  have  introduced  the  sense  of  dimensionality  into 
the  study  of  life  phenomena  in  general,  a  great  many  facts 
which  were  not  clear  before  become  very  clear  now. 

I  wrote  this  book  on  a  farm  without  any  books  at  hand 
and  I  had  been  out  of  touch  with  the  progress  of  science  for 
the  five  years  spent  in  the  war  service  and  war  duties.  My 
friend  Dr.  Grove-Korski,  formerly  at  Berkeley  University, 
drew  my  attention  particularly  to  the  books  of  Dr.  Jacques 
Loeb.  I  found  there  a  treasury  of  laboratory  facts  which 
illustrate  as  nothing  better  could,  the  correctness  of  my  theory. 
I  found  with  deep  satisfaction  that  the  new  "scientific  biology" 
is  scientific  because  it  has  used  mathematical  methods  with 
notable  regard  to  dimensionality — they  do  not  "milk  an  auto- 
mobile." 

For  the  mathematician  and  the  engineer,  the  "tropism 
theory  of  animal  conduct,"  founded  by  Dr.  J.  Loeb,  is  of 
the  greatest  interest,  because  this  is  a  theory  which  analyses 
the  functions  and  reactions  of  an  organism  as  a  whole  and 


BIOLOGY  AND  TIME-BINDING  237 

therefore  there  is  no  chance  for  confusion  of  ideas  or  the 
intermixing  of  dimensions. 

"Physiologists  have  long  been  in  the  habit  of  studying  not 
the  reactions  of  the  whole  organism  but  the  reactions  of  isolated 
segments;  the  so-called  reflexes.  While  it  may  seem  justifi- 
able to  construct  the  reactions  of  the  organism  as  a  whole  from 
the  individual  reflexes,  such  an  attempt  is  in  reality  doomed  to 
failure,  since  the  reactions  produced  in  an  isolated  element 
cannot  be  counted  upon  to  occur  when  the  same  element  is  part 
of  the  whole,  on  account  of  the  mutual  inhibitions  which  the 
different  parts  of  the  organism  produce  upon  each  other  when 
in  organic  connection;  and  it  is,  therefore,  impossible  to  express 
the  conduct  of  a  whole  animal  as  the  algebraic  sum  of  the  reflexes 
of  its  isolated  segments.  ...  It  would,  therefore,  be  a  miscon- 
ception to  speak  of  tropism  as  of  reflexes,  since  tropisms  are 
reactions  of  the  organism  as  a  whole,  while  reflexes  are  reactions 
of  isolated  segments.  Reflexes  and  tropisms  agree,  however,  in 
one  respect,  inasmuch  as  both  are  obviously  of  a  purely  physico- 
chemical  character."  Forced  Movements — Tropism  and  Animal 
Conduct.  By  Jacques  Loeb. 

I  will  quote  here  only  a  very  few  passages,  but  these  books 
are  of  such  importance  that  every  mathematician  and  engineer 
should  read  them.  They  are,  if  I  may  say  so,  a  "mathe- 
matical biology" — the  survey  of  a  life  long  study  of  "tro- 
pisms," which  is  the  name  given  to  express  "forced  movements" 
in  organisms.  They  give  the  quintessence  of  laboratory  ex- 
periments as  to  what  are  the  effects  of  different  energies  such 
as  light  (heliotropism),  electricity  (galvanotropism),  gravity 
( geotropism ) ,  etc.,  in  their  reaction  and  influence  upon  the 
movements  and  actions  of  living  organisms.  These  experi- 
ments are  conclusive  and  the  conclusions  arrived  at  cannot 
be  overlooked  or  evaded.  The  tremendous  practical  results 
of  such  scientific  methods  are  based  upon  two  principles, 
namely:  that,  (i)  the  scientists  must  think  mathematically, 
their  studies  of  the  phenomena  must  be  in  "systems"  as  a 
complex  whole,  and  they  must  not  intermix  dimensions;  (2) 


238  APPENDIX  II 

they  must  see  the  danger  and  not  be  afraid  of  old  words 
with  wrong  meanings,  but  must  use  clear  and  rigorous  think- 
ing to  eliminate  the  prejudices  in  science — the  poison  of  meta- 
physical speculating  with  words,  or  verbalism.  These  books 
give  ample  proofs  of  how  misleading  and  obscuring  are  the 
words  used  and  how  basically  wrong  are  the  conclusions 
arrived  at  by  such  scientists  as  still  persist  in  using  the 
anthropomorphic  or  teleological  methods  of  analysis.  If  a  scep- 
tical or  doubtful  reader  is  interested  to  see  an  ample  proof 
of  how  deadly  is  the  effect  which  an  incorrect  or  unmathe- 
matical  manner  of  thinking  brings  into  science  and  life — he. 
also  may  be  referred  to  these  books.  The  following  quota* 
tions  prove  biologically  that  man  is  of  a  totally  different 
dimension — a  totally  different  being  than  an  animal.  From 
Dr.  Conklin  I  quote  only  from  his  Heredity  and  Environ- 
ment and  to  save  a  repetition  of  the  title  of  the  book,  I 
will  indicate  the  quotations  by  using  only  his  name.  (All 
italics  are  indicated  by  A.  K.) 

"It  would  be  of  the  greatest  importance  to  show  directly 
that  the  homologous  proteins  of  different  species  are  different. 
This  has  been  done  for  hemoglobins  of  the  blood  by  Reichert  and 
Brown,  who  have  shown  by  crystallographic  measurements 
that  the  hemoglobins  of  any  species  are  definite  substances  for 
that  species.  .  .  .  The  following  sentences  by  Reichert  and 
Brown  seem  to  indicate  that  this  may  be  true  for  the  crystals  of 
hemoglobin.  '  The  hemoglobins  of  any  species  are  different  sub- 
stances for  that  species.  But  upon  comparing  the  corresponding 
substances  hemoglobins  in  different  species  of  a  genus  it  is 
generally  found  that  they  differ  the  one  from  the  other  to  a 
greater  or  less  degree;  the  differences  being  such  that  when 
complete  crystallographic  data  are  available  the  different  species 
can  be  distinguished  by  these  differences  in  their  hemoglobins'.  .  .  . 
The  facts  thus  far  reported  imply  the  suggestion  that  heredity 
of  the  genus  is  determined  by  the  proteins  of  a  definite  constitu- 
tion differing  from  the  proteins  of  other  genera.  This  constitu- 
tion of  the  proteins  would  therefore  be  responsible  for  the  genus 
heredity.  The  different  species  of  a  genus  have  all  the  same 
genus  proteins,  but  the  proteins  of  each  species  of  the  same 
genus  are  apparently  different  again  in  chemical  constitution 


BIOLOGY  AND  TIME-BINDING  239 

and  hence  they  may  give  rise  to  the  specific  biological  or  immun- 
ity reactions."  The  Organism  as  a  Whole,  by  Jacques  Loeb. 

"All  pecularitifs  which  are  characteristic  of  a  race,  species, 
genus,  order,  class  and  phylum  are  of  course  inherited,  otherwise 
there  would  be  no  constant  characteristics  of  these  groups  and 
no  possibility  of  classifying  organisms.  The  chief  characters 
of  every  living  thing  are  unalterably  fixed  by  heredity.  Men 
do  not  gather  grapes  of  thorns  nor  figs  of  thistles.  Every  living 
thing  produces  off-spring  after  its  own  kind,  Men,  horses,  cattle; 
birds,  reptiles,  fishes;  insects,  mollusks,  worms;  polyps,  sponges, 
micro-organisms, — all  of  the  million  known  species  of  animals  and 
plants  differ  from  one  another  because  of  inherited  peculiarities, 
because  they  have  come  from  different  kinds  of  germ  cells"  Conklin. 

"The  entire  organism  consisting  of  structures  and  functions, 
body  and  mind,  develops  out  of  the  germ,  and  the  organization 
of  the  germ  determines  all  the  possibilities  of  development  of 
the  mind  no  less  than  of  the  body,  though  the  actual  realization 
of  any  possibility  is  dependent  also  upon  environmental  stimuli." 
.  .  .  Conklin. 

"The  development  of  the  mind  parallels  that  of  the  body; 
whatever  the  ultimate  relation  of  the  mind  and  body  may  be, 
there  can  be  no  reasonable  doubt  that  the  two  develop  together 
from  the  germ.  It  is  a  curious  fact  that  many  people  who  are 
seriously  disturbed  by  scientific  teaching  as  to  the  evolution  or 
gradual  development  of  the  human  race  accept  with  equanimity 
the  universal  observation  as  to  the  development  of  the  human 
individual, — mind  as  well  as  body.  The  animal  ancestry  of 
the  race  is  surely  no  more  disturbing  to  philosophical  or  religious 
beliefs  than  the  germinal  origin  of  the  individual,  and  yet  the 
latter  is  a  fact  of  universal  observation  which  cannot  be  relegated 
to  the  domain  of  hypothesis  or  theory,  and  which  can  not  be 
successfully  denied.  .  .  .  Now  we  know  that  the  child  comes 
from  the  germ  cells  which  are  not  made  by  the  bodies  of  the 
parents  but  have  arisen  by  the  division  of  the  antecedent  germ 
cell.  Every  cell  comes  from  a  pre-existing  cell  by  a  process  of 
division,  and  every  germ  cell  comes  from  a  pre-existing  germ  cell. 
Consequently  it  is  not  possible  to  hold,  that  the  body  generates 
germ  cells,  nor  that  the  soul  generates  souls.  The  only  possible 
scientific  position  is  that  the  mind  or  soul  as  well  as  the  body 
develops  from  the  germ. 

"  No  fact  in  human  experience  is  more  certain  than  that  the 
mind  develops  by  gradual  and  natural  processes  from  a  simple 
condition  which  can  scarcely  be  called  mind  at  all;  no  fact 
in  human  experience  is  fraught  with  greater  practical  and  philo- 


240  APPENDIX  II 

sophical  significance  than  this,  and  yet  no  fact  is  more  generally 
disregarded."  Conklin. 

"  Doubtless  the  elements  of  which  consciousness  develops  are 
present  in  the  germ  cells,  in  the  same  sense  that  the  elements  of 
the  other  psychic  processes  or  of  the  organs  of  the  body  are 
there  present;  not  as  a  miniature  of  the  adult  condition,  but 
rather  in  the  form  of  elements  or  factors,  which  by  long  series  of 
combinations  and  transformations,  due  to  interactions  with  one 
another  and  with  the  environment,  give  rise  to  the  fully  developed 
condition.  ...  It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  in  man,  and  in 
several  other  animals  which  may  be  assumed  to  have  a  sense  of 
identity,  the  nerve  cells,  especially  those  of  the  brain,  cease 
dividing  at  an  early  age,  and  these  identical  cells  persist  through- 
out the  remainder  of  life."  .  .  . 

"The  hen  does  not  produce  the  egg,  but  the  egg  produces  the 
hen  and  also  other  eggs.  Individual  traits  are  not  transmitted 
from  the  hen  to  the  egg,  but  they  develop  out  of  germinal 
factors  which  are  carried  along  from  cell  to  cell,  and  from  genera~ 
tion  to  generation.  ..." 

"The  germ  is  the  undeveloped  organism  which  forms  the 
bond  between  successive  generations;  the  person  is  the  developed 
organism  which  arises  from  the  germ  under  the  influence  of 
environmental  conditions,  the  person  develops  and  dies  in  each 
generation;  the  germ-plasm  is  the  continuous  stream  of  living 
substance  which  connects  all  generations.  The  person  nour- 
ishes and  protects  the  germ,  and  in  this  sense  the  person  is 
merely  the  carrier  of  the  germ-plasm,  the  mortal  trustee  of  an 
immortal  substance."  Conklin. 

This  is  what  I  call  "time-linking."     (Author.) 

"Through  intelligence  and  social  cooperation  he  is  able  to 
control  environment  for  particular  ends,  in  a  manner  quite 
impossible  in  other  organisms.  .  .  .  Other  animals  develop 
much  more  rapidly  than  man  but  that  development  sooner 
comes  to  an  end.  The  children  of  lower  races  of  man  develop 
more  rapidly  than  those  of  higher  races  but  in  such  cases  they 
also  cease  to  develop  at  an  earlier  age.  The  prolongation  of  the 
period  of  infancy  and  of  immaturity  in  the  human  race  greatly 
increases  the  importance  of  environment  and  training  as  factors 
of  development."  Conklin. 

Another  sidelight  given  on  the  "Spiral  theory."     (Author.) 

"In  education  also  we  are  strangely  blind  to  proper  aims  and 
methods.  Any  education  is  bad  which  leads  to  the  formation 


BIOLOGY  AND  TIME-BINDING  241 

of  habits  of  idleness,  carelessness,  failure,  instead  of  habits  of 
industry,  thoroughness  and  success.  Any  religious  or  social 
institution  is  bad  which  leads  to  habits  of  pious  make-believe, 
insincerity,  slavish  regard  for  authority  and  disregard  for  evi- 
dence, instead  of  habits  of  sincerity,  open-mindedness  and  inde- 
pendence. .  .  ." 

"All  that  man  now  is  he  has  come  to  be  without  conscious 
human  guidance.  If  evolution  has  progressed  from  the  amceba 
to  man  without  human  interference,  if  the  great  progress  from 
ape-like  men  to  the  most  highly  civilized  races  has  taken  place 
without  conscious  human  control,  the  question  may  well  be 
asked :  Is  it  possible  to  improve  on  the  natural  method  of  evolu- 
tion? It  may  not  be  possible  to  improve  on  the  method  of 
evolution  and  yet  by  intelligent  action  it  may  be  possible  to 
facilitate  that  method.  Man  can  not  change  a  single  law  of  nature 
but  he  can  put  himself  into  such  relations  to  natural  laws  that  he 
•an  profit  by  them"  Conklin. 

This  proves  the  great  importance  of  KNOWING  THE  NAT- 
URAL LAWS  for  the  human  class  of  life,  and  making  natural 
time-binding  impulses  conscious,  for  then  only  will  the  spiral 
give  a  logarithmical  accumulation  of  the  right  kind,  other- 
wise the  biolyte  will  be  "animal"  in  substance  as  well  as  in 
effect.  Here  it  is  immaterial  how  the  first  "time-binder"  was 
produced;  the  fact  that  he  is  of  another  dimension  is  of  the 
greatest  importance. 

"  From  sands  to  stars,  from  the  immensity  of  the  universe  to 
the  minuteness  of  the  electron,  in  living  things  no  less  than  in 
lifeless  ones,  science  recognizes  everywhere  the  inevitable 
sequence  of  cause  and  effect,  the  universality  of  natural  proc- 
esses, the  reign  of  natural  law.  Man  also  is  a  part  of  Nature, 
a  part  of  the  great  mechanism  of  the  universe,  and  all  that  he  is 
and  does  is  limited  and  prescribed  by  laws  of  nature.  Every  human 
being  comes  into  existence  by  a  process  of  development,  every 
step  of  which  is  determined  by  antecedent  causes.  .  .  .  Our 
anatomical,  physiological,  psychological  possibilities  were  pre- 
determined in  the  germ  cells  from  which  we  came.  .  .  ." 
Conklin. 

This  shows  the  importance  of  keeping  the  study  of  humans 
in  their  own  dimensionality,  and  also  the  importance  of  find- 


242  APPENDIX  II 

ing  the  IMPERSONAL  NATURAL  LAWS  for  the  human  class  of 
life.  Now  it  can  be  realized  that  all  the  so-called  human 
ideals  are  none  else  than  the  ever  growing  fulfillment  of  the 
NATURAL  "TIME-BINDING"  LAWS.  This  understanding  will 
enable  man  to  discover  new  "time-binding"  laws  for  their 
conduct,  their  business  relations,  their  state,  which  will  not 
be  a  contradiction  of  the  real,  NATURAL  LAWS  but  will  be  in 
accord  with  them;  then  and  only  then  human  progress  will 
have  a  chance  to  develop  peacefully. 

"Adult  characteristics  are  potential  and  not  actual  in  the 
germ,  and  their  actual  appearance  depends  upon  many  com- 
plicated reactions  of  the  germinal  units  with  one  another  and 
with  the  environment.  In  short,  our  actual  personalities  are 
not  predetermined  in  the  germ  cells,  but  our  possible  personali- 
ties are.  .  .  .  The  influence  of  environment  upon  the  minds 
and  morals  of  men  is  especially  great.  To  a  large  extent  our 
habits,  words,  thoughts;  our  aspirations,  ideals,  satisfactions; 
our  responsibility,  morality,  religion  are  thex  results  of  the 
environment  and  education  of  our  early  years.  ..." 

"Owing  to  this  vastly  greater  power  of  memory,  reflection 
and  inhibition  man  is  much  freer  than  any  other  animal.  Ani- 
mals which  learn  little  from  experience  have  little  freedom  and 
the  more  they  learn  the  freer  they  become.  ..."  Conklin. 

It  may  be  added  here  that  the  "spiral  theory"  explains  how 
our  reactions  can  be  accelerated  and  elaborated  by  ourselves, 
and  how  truly  we  are  the  masters  of  our  destinies. 

"Because  we  can  find  no  place  in  our  philosophy  and  logic 
for  self  determination  shall  we  cease  to  be  scientists  and  close 
our  eyes  to  the  evidence  ?  The  first  duty  of  science  is  to  appeal 
to  fact  and  to  settle  later  with  logic  and  philosophy.  ..." 
Conklin. 

There  will  be  no  difficulty  in  the  settlement  of  facts  with 
the  new  philosophy  of  "Human  Engineering." 

"The  analysis  of  instinct  from  a  purely  physiological  point  of 
view  ultimately  furnishes  the  data  for  a  scientific  ethics. 
Human  happiness  is  based  upon  the  possibility  of  a  natural  and 
harmonious  satisfaction  of  the  instincts.  .  .  It  is  rather 


BIOLOGY  AND  TIME-BINDING  243 

remarkable  that  we  should  still  be  under  the  influence  of  an 
ethics  which  considers  the  human  instincts  in  themselves  low 
and  their  gratification  vicious.  That  such  an  ethics  must  have 
had  a  comforting  effect  upon  the  orientals,  whose  instincts  were 
inhibited  or  warped  through  the  combined  effects  of  an  enervat- 
ing climate,  despotism  and  miserable  economic  conditions  is 
intelligible,  and  it  is  perhaps  due  to  a  continuation  of  the  unsatis- 
factory economic  conditions  that  this  ethics  still  prevails  to 
some  extent.  .  .  .  Lawyers,  criminologists  and  philosophers 
frequently  imagine  that  only  want  makes  man  work.  This  is 
an  erroneous  view.  We  are  instinctively  forced  to  be  active  in 
the  same  way  as  ants  or  bees.  The  instinct  of  workmanship 
would  be  the  greatest  source  of  happiness  if  it  were  not  for  the 
fact  that  our  present  social  and  economic  organization  allows 
only  a  few  to  satisfy  this  instinct.  Robert  Mayer  has  pointed 
out  that  any  successful  display  or  setting  free  of  energy  is  a 
source  of  pleasure  to  us.  This  is  the  reason  why  the  satisfac- 
tion of  the  instinct  of  workmanship  is  of  such  importance  in  the 
economy  of  life,  for  the  play  and  learning  of  the  child,  as  well  as 
for  the  scientists  or  commercial  work  of  the  man.  .  .  .  We  can 
vary  at  will  the  instincts  of  animals.  A  number  of  marine 
animals  ...  go  away  from  the  light,  can  be  forced  to  go  to 
light  in  two  ways,  first  by  lowering  the  temperature  and  second 
by  increasing  the  concentration  of  the  sea  water,  whereby  the 
cells  of  the  animals  lose  water.  This  instinct  can  be  again 
reversed  by  raising  the  temperature  or  by  lowering  the  concen- 
tration of  the  sea  water.  I  have  found  repeatedly  that  by  the 
same  conditions  by  which  phenomena  of  growth  and  organiza- 
tion can  be  controlled  the  instincts  are  controlled  also.  This 
indicates  that  there  is  a  common  basis  for  both  classes  of  life 
phenomena.  This  common  base  is  the  physical  and  chemical 
character  of  the  mixture  of  substances  which  we  call  protoplasm. 
.  .  .  The  greatest  happiness  in  life  can  be  obtained  only  if  all 
instincts,  that  of  workmanship  included,  can  be  maintained  at  a 
certain  optimal  intensity^.  But  while  it  is  certain  that  the  indi- 
vidual can  ruin  or  diminish  the  value  of  its  life  by  a  onesided 
development  of  its  instincts,  e.g.,  dissipation,  it  is  at  the  same 
time  true  that  the  economic  and  social  conditions  can  ruin  or 
diminish  the  value  of  life  for  a  great  number  of  individuals.  It 
is  no  doubt  true  that  in  our  present  social  and  economic  condi- 
tions more  than  ninety  per  cent  of  human  beings  lead  an  exist- 
ence whose  value  is  far  below  what  it  should  be.  They  are 
compelled  by  want  to  sacrifice  a  number  of  instincts  especially 
the  most  valuable  among  them,  that  of  workmanship,  in  order 


244  APPENDIX  II 

to  save  the  lowest  and  most  imperative,  that  of  eating.  If 
those  who  amass  immense  fortunes  could  possibly  intensify  their 
lives  with  their  abundance,  it  might  perhaps  be  rational  to  let 
many  suffer  in  order  to  have  a  few  cases  of  true  happiness.  But 
for  an  increase  of  happiness  only  that  amount  of  money  is  of 
service  which  can  be  used  for  the  harmonious  development  and 
satisfaction  of  inherited  instincts.  For  this,  comparatively  little  is 
necessary.  The  rest  is  of  no  more  use  to  a  man  than  the  surplus 
of  oxygen  in  the  atmosphere.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  only  true 
satisfaction  a  multimillionaire  can  possibly  get  from  increasing 
his  fortunes,  is  the  satisfaction  of  the  instinct  of  workmanship 
or  the  pleasure  that  is  connected  with  a  successful  display  of 
energy.  The  scientist  gets  this  satisfaction  without  diminish- 
ing the  value  of  life  of  his  fellow  being,  and  the  same  should  be 
true  for  the  business  man.  .  .  .  Although  we  recognize  no  meta- 
physical free-will,  we  do  not  deny  personal  responsibility.  We 
can  fill  the  memory  of  the  young  generation  with  such  associa- 
tions as  will  prevent  wrong  doing  or  dissipation.  .  .  .  Cruelty 
in  the  penal  code  and  the  tendency  to  exaggerate  punishment 
are  sure  signs  of  a  low  civilization  and  of  an  imperfect  educa- 
tional system.  ...  It  seems  to  me  that  we  can  no  more  expect 
to  unravel  the  mechanism  of  associative  memory  by  histo- 
logical  or  morphological  methods  than  we  can  expect  to 
unravel  the  dynamics  of  electrical  phenomena  by  microscopic 
study  of  cross-sections  through  a  telegraph  wire  or  by  counting 
and  locating  the  telephone  connections  in  a  big  city.  If  we  are 
anxious  to  develop  a  dynamic  of  the  various  life-phenomena, 
we  must  remember  that  the  colloidal  substances  are  the  machines 
which  produce  the  life  phenomena,  but  the  physics  of  these 
substances  is  still  a  science  of  the  future.  .  .  .  Physiology  gives 
us  no  answer  to  the  latter  question.  The  idea  of  specific  energy 
has  always  been  regarded  as  the  terminus  for  the  investigation 
of  the  sense  organs.  Mach  expressed  the  opinion  that  chemical 
conditions  lie  at  the  foundation  of  sensation  in  general.  ..." 
Comparative  Physiology  of  the  Brain,  by  Jacques  Loeb. 

Here  it  may  be  added  that  the  "Instinct  of  Workmanship" 
in  the  animal  class,  becomes  in  the  time-binding  class  of  life 
the  instinct  of  creation,  and  is  nothing  else  than  the  expres- 
sion of  the  natural  impulse  of  the  "Time-binding"  energy.  In 
the  present  social  and  economic  system  very  few  have  a  pos- 
sibility to  satisfy  this  instinct;  scientific  management  is  or 


BIOLOGY  AND  TIME-BINDING  245 

may  be  satisfying  the  animal  instinct  of  workmanship,  but 
it  is  not  satisfactory  to  the  instinct  of  creation.  "Time- 
binding"  in  its  last  analysis  is  creation  and  only  such  a  social 
and  economic  system  as  will  satisfy  this  want — this  natural 
impulse — will  satisfy  Humans — the  "Time-binders" — and 
will  bring  about  their  fullest  growth  in  work  and  happiness. 
"LAWS  OF  GROWTH"  (from  Unified  Mathematics,  by 
Louis  C.  Karpinski,  Ph.D.).  "Compound  interest  function. 
— The  function  <S=P(i-j-i)w  is  of  fundamental  importance 
in  other  fields  than  in  finance.  Thus  the  growth  of  timber 
of  a  large  forest  tract  may  be  expressed  as  a  function  of  this 
kind,  the  assumption  being  that  in  a  large  tract  the  rate  of 
growth  may  be  taken  as  uniform  from  year  to  year.  In 
the  case  of  bacteria  growing  under  ideal  conditions  in  a 
culture,  i.e.  with  unlimited  food  supplied,  the  increase  in  the 
number  of  bacteria  per  second  is  proportional  to  the  number 
of  bacteria  present  at  the  beginning  of  that  second.  Any 
function  in  which  the  rate  of  change  or  rate  of  growth  at 
any  instant  /  is  directly  proportional  to  the  value  of  the 
function  at  the  instant  t  obeys  what  has  been  termed  the  'law 
of  organic  growth,'  and  may  be  expressed  by  the  equation, 

y=cekt, 

wherein  c  and  k  are  constants  determined  by  the  physical 
facts  involved,  and  e  is  a  constant  of  nature  analogous  to  IT. 
The  constant  k  is  the  proportionality  constant  and  is  negative 
when  the  quantity  in  question  decreases;  c  is  commonly  posi- 
tive ; 

£=2.178 

"The  values  of  the  function  of  x,  cekx,  increase  according  to 
the  terms  of  a  geometrical  progression  as  the  variable  x  in- 
creases in  arithmetical  progression.  .  .  . 

"The  most  immediate  application  of  a  function  in  which  the 


246  APPENDIX  II 

growth  is  proportional  to  the  function  itself  is  to  the  air.  The 
decrease  in  the  pressure  of  the  air  at  the  distance  h  above 
the  earth's  surface  is  proportional  to  h. 

"The  expression  P=y6o  e~7wo  gives  the  numerical  value 
of  the  pressure  in  millimeters  of  mercury  for  h  measured  in 
meters.  The  negative  exponent  indicates  that  the  pressure 
decreases  as  h  increases.  In  inches  as  units  of  length  of  the 
mercury  column,  h  in  feet, 


D 

P= 


26200 


This  is  known  as  Halley's  law. 

"The  growth  of  bean  plants  within  limited  intervals  and  the 
growth  of  children,  again  between  quite  restricted  limits, 
follow  approximately  the  law  of  organic  growth.  Radium  in 
decomposing  follows  the  same  law;  the  rate  of  decrease  at 
any  instant  being  proportional  to  the  quantity.  In  the  case 
of  vibrating  bodies,  like  a  pendulum,  the  rate  of  decrease  of 
the  amplitude  follows  this  law  ;  similarly  in  the  case  of  a  noise 
dying  down  and  in  certain  electrical  phenomena,  the  rate  of 
decrease  is  proportional  at  any  instant  to  the  value  of  the 
function  at  the  instant.  .  .  . 

"The  Curve  of  Healing  of  a  Wound.  —  Closely  allied  to  the 
formulas  expressing  the  law  of  organic  growth,  y  =  ekt,  and 
the  law  of  'organic  decay,'  y=^~tt,  is  a  recently  discovered 
law  which  connects  algebraically  by  an  equation  and  graphic- 
ally by  a  curve,  the  surface-area  of  a  wound,  with  time  ex- 
pressed in  days,  measured  from  the  time  when  the  wound 
is  aseptic  or  sterile.  When  this  aseptic  condition  is  reached, 
by  washing  and  flushing  continually  with  antiseptic  solutions, 
two  observations  at  an  interval  commonly  of  four  days  give 
the  'index  of  the  individual,'  and  this  index,  and  the  two 
measurements  of  area  of  the  wound-surface,  enable  the 
physician-scientist  to  determine  the  normal  progress  of  the 
wound-surface,  the  expected  decrease  in  area,  for  this  wound- 


BIOLOGY  AND  TIME-BINDING  247 

surface  of  this  individual.  The  area  of  the  wound  is  traced 
carefully  on  transparent  paper,  and  then  computed  by  using 
a  mathematical  machine,  called  a  planimeter,  which  measures 
areas. 

"The  areas  of  the  wound  are  plotted  as  ordinates  with  the 
respective  times  of  observation  measured  in  days  as  abscissas. 
After  each  observation  and  computation  of  area  the  point  so 
obtained  is  plotted  to  the  same  axes  as  the  graph  which  gives 
the  ideal  or  prophetic  curve  of  healing. 

"When  the  observed  area  Is  found  markedly  greater  than 
that  determined  by  the  ideal  curve,  the  indication  is  that  there 
is  still  infection  in  the  wound.  ...  A  rather  surprising  and 
unexplained  situation  occurs  frequently  when  the  wound- 
surface  heals  more  rapidly  than  the  ideal  curve  would  indi- 
cate; in  this  event  secondary  ulcers  develop  which  bring  the 
curve  back  to  normal  ..... 

"This  application  of  mathematics  to  medicine  is  largely  due 
to  Dr.  Alexis  Carrel  of  the  Rockefeller  Institute  of  Medical 
Research.  He  noted  that  the  larger  the  wound-surface,  the 
more  rapidly  it  healed,  and  that  the  rate  of  healing  seemed 
to  be  proportional  to  the  area.  This  proportionality  constant 
is  not  the  same  for  all  values  of  the  surface  or  we  would 
have  an  equation  of  the  form, 


in  which  S,  is  the  area  at  the  time  that  the  wound  is  rendered 
sterile  and  observations  to  be  plotted  really  begin.  .  .  . 

"The  data  given  are  taken  from  the  Journal  of  Experi- 
mental Medicine,  reprints  kindly  furnished  by  Major  George 
A*  Stewart  of  the  Rockefeller  Institute.  The  diagrams  are 
reproduced  from  the  issue  of  Feb.  i,  1918,  pp.  i/i  and  172, 
article  by  Dr.  T.  Tuffier  and  R.  Desmarres,  Auxiliary  Hos- 
pital 75,  Paris.  .  .  . 

"WAVE  MOTION.  General.  —  In  nature  there  are  two  types 
of  recurrent  motion,  somewhat  closely  connected  mathemat- 


248 


APPENDIX  II 


o 

<L> 

£ 
a 


5s 


SJ-fi 

—  -w 


O    <O 

£  rt 


, 

*C  6 

3  0> 

<»  g; 

rt  fa 


"rt 

<u 

-G 

(*4 

O 


BIOLOGY  AND  TIME-BINDING  249 

ically,  in  which  repetition  of  motion  occurs  at  regular  in- 
tervals. 

"One  type  of  this  motion,  in  cycles  as  we  may  say,  repeats 
the  motion  in  one  place,  and  is  in  a  sense  stationary.  The 
tuning  fork  in  motion  moves  through  the  same  space  again 
and  again;  a  similar  movement  is  the  motion  of  a  vibrating 
string.  Of  this  stationary  type  may  be  mentioned  the  heart- 
beats, the  pulse,  the  respiration,  the  tides,  and  the  rotation 
of  a  wheel  about  its  axis. 

"The  second  type  of  recurrent  motion  transmits  or  carries 
the  vibratory  impulse  over  an  extent  of  space  as  well  as  time. 
The  waves  of  the  sea  are  of  this  character.  Sound  waves, 
electrical  vibrations  or  waves,  and  radiant  energy  vibrations 
are  transmitted  by  a  process  similar  to  that  by  which  the 
waves  of  the  sea  are  carried. 

"Both  of  these  types  of  motion  are  representable  mathe- 
matically by  equations  involving  a  sequence  of  trigonometric 
functions.  To  the  fundamental  and  basic  function  involved, 
y=  sin*,  we  will  direct  our  attention  in  the  next  section  and 
to  simple  applications  in  other  sections  of  this  chapter.  .  .  . 

"Sound  Waves. — If  a  tuning  fork  for  note  lower  C  is  set 
to  vibrating,  the  free  bar  makes  129  complete,  back-and- 
forth,  vibrations  in  one  second.  By  attaching  a  fine  point 
to  the  end  of  the  bar  and  moving  under  this  bar  at  a  uniform 
rate,  as  it  vibrates,  a  smoke-blackened  paper,  a  sinusoidal 
curve  is  traced  on  the  paper.  Our  curve  is  traced  by  a  bar 
vibrating  50  times  in  I  second. 


The  curve  y  =  sin  (50  X  2irt). 
Tuning  fork  vibrations  recorded  on  smoked  paper.  .  .  . 

"Corresponding  to  each  movement  of  the  vibrating  rod  there 
is  a  movement  of  the  air.     As  the  bar  moves  to  the  right 


APPENDIX  II 


it  compresses  the  layer  of  air  to  its  right  and  that  compres- 
sion is  immediately  communicated  to  the  layer  of  air  to  the 
right;  as  the  bar  moves  back  and  to  the  left,  the  pressure 
on  the  adjacent  air  is  released  and  a  rarefaction  takes  place. 
In^of  i  second  you  have  the  air  adjacent  to  the  rod  com- 
pressed, back  to  normal,  and  rarefied;  during  this  time  the 
neighboring  air  is  affected  and  the  compression  is  commu- 
nicated a  distance  which  is  the  wave  length  of  this  given 
sound  wave.  In  I  second  this  disturbance  is  transmitted 
1 100  feet  at  44°  Fahrenheit.  The  wave  length  for  this  sound 
wave  then  is  i£$^=  22  feet. 

"The  wave  length  is  commonly  designated  by    \.     If  V 
is  the  velocity,  and  t  the  time  of  one  vibration,  X  =  Vt. 


'a'  as  in 
in  'be';     and  "a    in 


'ate' 


"Vibration   records  produced   by  the  voice: 

'ou'  as  in  'about';    'r'  in  'relay';    'e'  in  'be';     and  'a 
'father.'     The  tuning  fork  record,  frequency  50  per  second, 
gives  the  vibration  frequencies.  ..." 

This  last  drawing  may  help  to  visualize  the  fact  in  what 
manner  wrong  expressions  and  untrue  teachings  hamper  the 
true  progress  of  humanity.  Every  word  has  its  energy  and 
produces  some  physico-chemical  effects  in  the  time-binding 
apparatus  in  accord  with  the  idea  which  we  associate  with 
the  sound  of  the  word.  If  we  teach  ideas  which  are  untrue, 


BIOLOGY  AND  TIME-BINDING  251 

then  the  physico-chemical  effects  produced  are  not  proper — 
in  other  words  the  human  mind  does  NOT  WORK  PROPERLY, 
that  is,  it  does  not  work  naturally  or  normally  or  true  to  the 
human  dimension.  There  is  every  reason  why  the  standards 
in  our  civilization  are  so  low,  because  we  have  "poisoned," 
in  a  literal  sense  of  the  word,  our  minds  with  the  physico- 
chemical  effects  of  wrong  ideas.  This  correct  NATURAL 
APPROACH  to  the  "Time-binding"  energies  will  make  it  obvi- 
ous how  unmeasured  is  the  importance  of  the  manner  in 
which  we  handle  this  subtle  mechanism,  as  the  poisoning  with 
wrong  ideas  or  with  careless  or  incorrect  words  does  not  in 
any  way  differ  in  consequences  from  poisoning  with  any  other 
stupor-producing  or  wrongly  stimulating  poison. 

MONOGRAPHS  ON  EXPERIMENTAL  BIOLOGY 
AND  PHYSIOLOGY 

LOEB,  J. :  "Comparative  Physiology  of  the  Brain  and  Com- 
parative Psychology."  New  York,  1900. 

LOEB,  J. :  "Studies  in  General  Physiology."     Chicago,  1905. 

LOEB,  J. :  "The  Dynamics  of  Living  Matter."  New  York, 
1906. 

LOEB,  J.:  "The  Mechanistic  Conception  of  Life."  Chicago, 
1912. 

CONTENTS 

1    The  Mechanistic  Conception  of  Life. 
II.  The  Significance  of  Tropisms  for  Psychology. 

III.  Some  Fundamental  Facts  and  Conceptions  concern- 

ing  the   Comparative   Physiology  of  the   Central 
Nervous  System. 

IV.  Pattern  Adaptation  of  Fishes  and  the  Mechanism  of 

Vision. 
V.  On    Some    Facts    and    Principles    of    Physiological 

Morphology. 

VI.  On  the  Nature  of  the  Process  of  Fertilization. 
VII.  On  the  Nature  of  Formative  Stipulation  (Artificial 

Parthenogenesis). 

VIII.  The  Prevention  of  the  Death  of  the  Egg  through  the 
Act  of  Fertilization. 


252  APPENDIX  II 

IX.  The  Role  of  Salts  in  the  Preservation  of  Life. 
X.  Experimental  Study  of  the  Influence  of  Environment 
on  Animals. 

LOEB,  J.:  The  Organism  as  a  Whole.     G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons. 
New  York,  1916. 

CONTENTS 

I.  Introductory  Remarks. 

II.  The   Specific  Difference  between   Living  and   Dead 
Matter  and  the  Question  of  the  Origin  of  Life. 

III.  The  Chemical  Basis  of  Genus  and  Species: 

1.  The    Incompatibility    of    Species    not    Closely 

Related. 

2.  The  Chemical  basis  of  Genus  and  Species  and  of 

Species  Specificity. 

IV.  Specificity  in  Fertilization. 
V.  Artificial  Parthenogenesis. 

VI.  Determinism  in  the  Formation  of  an  Organism  from 

an  Egg. 

VII.  Regeneration. 

VIII.  Determination  of  Sex,  Secondary  Sexual  Characters 
and  Sexual  Instincts: 

1.  The  Cytological  Basis  of  Sex  Determination. 

2.  The  Physiological  Basis  of  Sex  Determination. 
IX.  Mendelian  Heredity  and  its  Mechanism. 

X.  Animal  Instincts  and  Tropisms. 
XI.  The  Influence  of  Environment. 
XII.  Adaptation  to  Environment. 

XIII.  Evolution. 

XIV.  Death  and  Dissolution  of  the  Organism. 

LOEB,  J. :  "Forced  Movements,  Tropisms,   and  Animal  Con- 
duct."   J.  B.  Lippincott,  Philadelphia,  1918. 

CONTENTS 

I.  Introduction. 

II.  The  Symmetry  Relations  of  the  Animal  Body  as  the 
Starting  Point  for  the  Theory  of  Animal  Conduct. 

III.  Forced  Movements. 

IV.  Galvanotropism. 

V.  Heliotropism.    The  Influence  of  One  Source  of  Light. 


BIOLOGY  AND  TIME-BINDING  253 

1.  General  Facts. 

2.  Direct  Proof  of  the  Muscle  Tension  Theory  of 

Heliotropism  in  Motile  Animals. 

3.  Heliotropism  of  Unicellular  Organisms. 

4.  Heliotropism  of  Sessile  Animals. 
VI.  An  Artificial  Heliotropic  Machine. 

VII.  Asymmetrical  Animals. 

VIII.  Two  Sources  of  Light  of  Different  Intensity. 
IX.  The  Validity  of  the  Bunsen-Roscoe  Law  for  the  Helio- 
tropic Reactions  of  Animals  and  Plants. 
X.  The  Effect  of  Rapid  Changes  in  Intensity  of  Light. 
XL  The  Relative  Heliotropic  Efficiency  of  Light  of  Differ- 
ent Wave  Lengths. 
XII.  Change  in  the  Sense  of  Heliotropism. 

XIII.  Geotropism. 

XIV.  Forced     Movements     Caused     by    Moving    Retina 

Images:    Rheotropism:   Anemotropism. 
XV.  Stereotropism. 
XVI.  Chemotropism. 
XVII.  Thermotropism. 
XVIII.  Instincts. 
XIX.  Memory  Images  and  Tropisms. 

A  list  of  554  books  on  this  subject,  in  which  any 
reader  interested  will  find  a  vast  storehouse  of  exact 
knowledge  in  this  line.  Author. 

CONKLIN,  EDWIN  GRANT:  "Heredity  and  Environment  in  the 
Development  of  Men."  Princeton  University  Press, 
I9I5- 

CONTENTS 

I.  Facts  and  Factors  of  Development. 
Introduction. 

A.  Phenomena  of  Development. 

B.  Factors  of  Development. 

II.  Cellular  Basis  of  Heredity  and  Development. 

A.  Introductory. 

B.  The  Germ  Cells. 

C.  The  Mechanism  of  Heredity. 

D.  The  Mechanism  of  Development. 
III.  Phenomena  of  Inheritance. 

A.  Observations  on  Inheritance. 

B.  Statistical  Study  of  Inheritance. 

C.  Experimental  Study  of  Inheritance. 


254  APPENDIX  II 

IV.  Influence  of  Environment. 

A.  Relative  Importance  of  Heredity  and  Environ- 

ment. 

B.  Experimental  Modifications  of  Development. 

C.  Functional  Activity  as  a  Factor  of  Development. 

D.  Inheritance    or    Non-inheritance    of   Acquired 

Characters. 

E.  Applications  to  Human  Development:   Euthen- 

ics. 
V.  Control  of  Heredity:  Eugenics. 

A.  Domesticated  Animals  and  Cultivated  Plants. 

B.  Control  of  Human  Heredity. 
VI.  Genetics  and  Ethics. 

Glossary  of  books  on  this  subject;  for  those  who 
desire  to  be  more  fully  acquainted  with  the  subjects 
of  heredity  and  development.  Author. 

MORGAN,  T.  H.,  "  Physical  Basis  of  Heredity." 

EAST,  E.  M.,  and  JONES,  D.  F.,  "Inbreeding  and  Outbreeding," 
etc. 

PARKER,  G.  H.,  "The  Elementary  Nervous  System." 
HARVEY,  E.  N.,  "The  Nature  of  Animal  Light." 


APPENDIX  III 

ENGINEERING  AND  TIME-BINDING 

THE  Arts  of  Engineering,  by  their  very  nature,  are  derived 
from  the  work  of  dead  men  and  destined  to  serve  not 
only  the  present  but  the  future.  They  are  freer  than  any 
other  human  activity  from  the  errors  of  intermixing  dimen- 
sions and  from  the  fallacy  of  belief  in  individualistic  accom- 
plishment and  pride.  The  simple  steel  structure  of  a  bridge, 
familiar  to  us  in  every  day  life,  is  a  clear  reminder  to  us 
all  of  the  arts  of  Hephzestus  and  the  bound-up  knowledge 
of  countless  generations  of  smiths  and  mechanics,  metallurgists 
and  chemists,  mathematicians  and  builders,  teachers  and  engi- 
neers who  toiled  for  many  thousands  of  years  to  make  pos- 
sible the  riveted  steel  beams  which  are  the  elements  of  mod- 
ern structure.  These  structures  do  not  collapse  unless  the 
natural  laws  for  their  construction  are  transgressed;  which 
seldom  happens — for  no  one  is  entrusted  with  the  work  unless 
he  has  bound  up  in  his  knowledge  the  accumulated  experience 
of  the  past;  yet  the  transgressors  of  these  natural  laws  are 
punished  with  all  the  severity  of  the  common  law.  When  a 
bridge  is  opened  and  tested,  the  written  laws  in  some 
countries  and  the  unwritten  in  others,  and  the  pride  and  the 
sense  of  responsibility  of  the  designer  and  builder  of  the 
bridge  demand  that  he,  the  creator  of  the  bridge,  be  the 
first  to  enter  it  and  the  last  to  leave  it ;  and  should  the  bridge 
collapse,  he  has  to  take  the  immediate  consequences  of  his 
neglect  of  the  time-binding  laws. 

Rarely  are  the  affairs  of  engineering  done  with  the  entirely 
selfish  motive  of  merely  acquiring  immediate  selfish  gain, 

255 


256  APPENDIX  III 

for  even  when  this  could  be  traced — this  unworthy  thought 
disappears  in  the  halo  of  the  glory  of  the  accomplishment. 
Mr.  Eiffel  did  not  erect  his  tower  to  haunt  Paris  with  the 
sight  of  a  steel  skeleton  towering  over  the  city  of  daring 
thoughts.  His  tower  stands  to-day  as  a  mechanical  proof  of 
mathematical  formulas  proving  the  possibility  of  erecting  tall, 
self-supporting  structures  and  thereby  serving  future  human- 
ity. The  Time-binding  capacity  of  humans  creates  and  for- 
mulates new  values  for  the  service  of  mankind.  Again,  no 
student  of  the  Arts  of  Engineering  could  ever  forget  himself 
to  the  point  of  claiming  his  accomplishments,  no  matter  how 
marvelous,  all  to  himself.  No  wondrous  discovery  of  modern 
electricity,  not  even  the  talking  from  one  hemisphere  to 
another,  is  rightly  the  accomplishment  of  any  one  man,  for 
the  origin  of  the  discovery  can  be  traced  at  least  as  far  back 
as  the  days  of  that  barefooted  shepherd  boy  Magnus,  who  first 
observed  the  phenomena  of  magnetism. 

In  an  attempt  to  trace  and  evaluate  the  time-binding  fac- 
ulties manifested  in  the  Arts  of  Engineering,  one  is  at  once 
astonished,  and  bewildered,  at  the  confusion  and  contradic- 
tions unrealized  in  the  mass  of  evidence,  and  how  pathetic 
and  deplorable  is  the  sight  of  hundreds  of  thousands  of  work- 
ers in  the  field  of  engineering  toil  and  creation  who  uncon- 
sciously submit  to  the  degradation,  in  silent  consent,  of  see- 
ing their  marvelous  collective  achievements  chained  to  space- 
binding  aims. 

Upon  the  completion  of  this  book  I  was  astonished  that 
there  are  such  a  small  number  of  engineers  who  have  the 
intuitive  feeling  of  the  greatness  of  the  assets  at  their  com- 
mand and  of  the  gravity  of  their  liabilities  concerning  affairs 
of  humanity.  I  was  eager  to  have  my  book  read  and  analysed 
by  a  few  leading  engineers.  The  late  H.  L.  Gantt  being  no 
more  with  us,  I  then  turned  to  Walter  N.  Polakov,  Doctor 
of  Engineering;  Industrial  Counselor;  Chairman  of  Com- 
mittee on  Service  and  Information,  Fuels  Section,  A.S.M.E., 


ENGINEERING  AND  TIME-BINDING        257 

and  Robert  B.  Wolf,  Vice-President  of  A.S.M.E.  In  them 
I  found,  to  the  full,  a  very  sympathetic  understanding  and 
my  esteem  grew  as  I  became  more  intimately  acquainted  with 
the  character  of  their  work  and  their  accomplishments.  Both 
have  done  a  most  remarkable  work  in  their  respective  lines. 
It  will  not  be,an  exaggeration  to  say  that  their  work,  together 
with  the  work  of  the  late  H.  L.  Gantt  and  Charles  P. 
Steinmetz,  may  be  considered  as  the  first — to  my  knowledge — 
corner-stones  of  the  science  and  art  of  Human  Engineering, 
and  form  the  first  few  volumes  and  writings  for  the  New 
Library  of  the  Manhood  of  Humanity.  These  books  and 
pamphlets  are  based  on  facts  analysed  scientifically,  marking 
the  parting  of  the  way  of  engineering  thought  from  the  past 
subjection  to  speculative  fetishes. 

Of  all  the  pure  and  applied  sciences,  engineering  alone  has 
the  distinction  of  being  the  first  to  have  the  correct  insight 
into  the  human  problem.  The  task  of  engineers  was  to  con- 
vert knowledge — brain  work — "bound-up  time" — into  daily 
bread  by  means  of  conserving  time  and  effort.  This  concept 
is  naught  else  but  the  working  out  of  the  imperfect  formu- 
lation of  the  time-binding  principle.  It  was  inevitable,  there- 
fore, that  some  engineers  had  already  beaten  the  path  in  the 
right  direction.  How  straight  and  how  far  this  sense  of 
dimensionality  has  led  some  of  them  in  their  practical  work 
may  be  seen  from  the  work  of  Walter  N.  Polakov,  in  his 
Mastering  Power  Production,  Engineering  Magazine,  N.  Y., 
1921. 

"It  was  not  my  intention  to  compile  a  text  book  on  power 
engineering;  it  was  rather  my  care  to  avoid  the  treatment  of 
any  technical  subject  which  could  be  found  elsewhere  in  engi- 
neering literature;  but  I  could  not  avoid  trespassing  in  the 
adjoining  fields  of  psychology  and  economics,  for  without 
familiarity  with  these  sciences  the  mastery  of  power  production 
is  a  futile  attempt. 

"  I  do  not  hold  that  the  principles  upon  which  the  method  is 
laid  out  are  subject  to  choice  or  opinions,  for  they  are  based  on 


258  APPENDIX  III 

facts.  Yet  work  of  this  character  cannot  be  complete,  or 
examples  may  be  illy  chosen,  for  it  deals  with  living  and  con- 
stantly reshaping  relations  and  applies  to  things  in  process  of 
development. 

"  If  this  work  and  its  underlying  idea  will  facilitate  the  solving 
of  some  of  the  problems  now  in  the  course  of  rapid  evolution  in 
our  industrial  relations,  I  shall  feel  that  my  own  and  my  readers' 
time  have  not  been  altogether  lost." 

Indeed  the  readers'  time  will  not  be  lost.  This  book  gives 
an  engineering,  scientific — in  the  meantime  practical — analysis 
of  all  human  problems.  It  is  a  deep  and  practical  treatise 
on  all  great  questions  concerning  modern  industrialism  and 
so-called  economic  problems  and  is  a  foundation  for  a  new 
scientific  industrial  philosophy.  Another  very  clear  outline 
of  the  Principles  of  Industrial  Philosophy  was  given  by  Mr. 
Polakov  in  his  paper  presented  at  the  annual  meeting  of  the 
American  Society  of  Mechanical  Engineers,  December  7-10, 
1920.  Anyone  who  has  anything  to  do  with  industrial  or 
economic  problems  cannot  afford  to  overlook  the  important 
and  fundamental  work  in  this  book. 

It  is  obvious  that  a  scientific  knowledge  of  facts,  is  of  the 
greatest  importance  for  anyone  who  cares  to  approach  any 
problem  in  a  serious  way.  Statistics  which  are  up-to-date  are 
therefore  of  primary  importance.  I  had  the  privilege  of  read- 
ing the  manuscript  of  Quo  Vadis  America,  the  forthcoming 
book  of  Mr.  Polakov,  where  a  most  valuable  statistical  picture 
of  facts  in  modern  America  is  given  and  the  astonishing  con- 
clusions which  are  to  be  drawn  therefrom.  I  can  only  regret 
that  in  Europe  we  have  not  such  a  knowledge  written  down 
concerning  European  conditions.  If  more  such  books  had 
been  written  and  read  by  the  public,  many  crises  and  catas- 
trophes would  have  been  avoided. 

The  outstanding  contribution  of  Mr.  Robert  B.  Wolf  to 
engineering  was  made  in  his  study  of  physiology,  biology, 
psychology  and  philosophy  as  applied  to  engineering. 


ENGINEERING  AND  TIME-BINDING         259 

"If  anyone  wishes  to  inquire  into  the  forces  which  have  led 
up  to  the  individual  development  of  mankind,  he  will  find  him- 
self at  once  plunged  into  the  realm  of  psychology  and  mental 
philosophy.  I  can  heartily  recommend  such  a  course  as  im- 
mensely profitable  and  of  practical  value. 

"  The  five  important  facts,  however,  that  have  to  do  with  the 
subject  in  hand  are: 

"  ist.  That  the  human  body  is  such  a  wonderful  organization 
because  it  is  the  product  of  the  forces  of  creation,  acting  through 
millions  of  years  of  evolution. 

"  2nd.  That  its  capacity  for  progress  depends  upon  the  main- 
tenance of  the  unity  resulting  from  this  creative  evolution  and 
upon  a  conscious  recognition  of  this  unity. 

"  id.  That  this  unity  would  not  have  been  possible  without  the 
development  of  the  nervous  system. 

"  4th.  That  the  conscious  intelligent  progress  made  by  man- 
kind could  not  have  reached  its  present  level  until  in  the  process 
of  evolution  a  mechanism  had  been  built  up  in  the  nervous  system 
itself  capable  of  recording  the  various  impressions  which  the 
senses  are  constantly  receiving. 

"  $th.  That  the  recording  of  past  events,  with  the  power  of 
consciously  recalling  them  for  the  solution  of  problems  imme- 
diately confronting  it,  is  absolutely  essential  to  its  development. 

"  Now,  what  I  want  to  point  out  is  that  inasmuch  as  man's 
progress  depends  upon  the  perfect  co-ordination  of  his  forces  to 
produce  unity  of  action,  we  have  no  right  to  expect  an  industrial 
organization  to  make  progress  which  it  must  do  as  a  unit 
without  the  establishment  of  a  conscious  co-ordinating  mechan- 
ism similar  to  the  nervous  system  in  the  human  body."  Indi- 
viduality in  Industry.  By  Robert  B.  Wolf. 

Doctor  Charles  P.  Steinmetz  has  given  in  his  America  and 
the  New  Epoch  a  most  correct  engineering  picture  of  the 
political  situation  in  the  world,  with  a  fine  characterization 
of  the  psychological  peculiarities  of  the  different  races. 
Although  this  book  was  written  in  1916,  that  is,  before  the 
end  of  the  World  War,  it  will  be  of  permanent  value; 
because  of  its  deep  psychological  analysis  of  the  peoples  and 
their  institutions  which  ultimately  shape  the  development  of 
any  nation  and  which  do  not  change  with  victory  or  defeat. 

"My  tribute  to  the  memory  of  Gantt  will  be,  not  only  the 
homage  of  a  friend  and  admirer,  but  the  proof  that  his  philos- 


260  APPENDIX  III 

ophy  is  scientifically  true.  A  rigorous  proof  is  necessary, 
because  the  word  'service'  belongs  to  that  category  of  words, 
the  meaning  of  which  can  be  completely  reversed  by  the  verb, 
be  it  'give*  or  'take.'  Gantt  took  'rendering  service'  as  an 
axiom;  my  observation,  shared  with  many  others,  is  that  our 
civilization  had  quite  another  axiom,  'we  preach  give,  we 
practice  take.'  The  problem  which  interested  me,  was  how  to 
find  a  way  out  of  this  contradiction  that  would  be  irrefutable. 
If  one  of  them  is  true  and  natural  law  for  humans,  then  the 
other  is  not;  if  our  words  are  true,  then  our  deeds  are  not  true, 
or  if  our  deeds  are  true  then  the  words  are  camouflage.  I  found 
the  solution,  by  applying  mathematically  rigorous  thinking. 
Mathematics,  with  its  exact  concept  of  dimensions,  gave  me  the 
method.  The  method  we  use  in  studying  phenomena  is  analysis, 
or  speaking  mathematically,  differentiation.  I  soon  found,  that 
the  methods  of  differentiation  are  mostly  correct,  but  our  syn- 
thesis, or  process  of  integration  made  by  the  use  of  metaphysics 
was  faulty.  The  differentiation  correctly  lowered  the  dimen- 
sions, but  our  faulty  integration  did  not  restore  the  original 
dimensions.  The  investigation  had  to  be  made  from  the  begin- 
ning, by  defining  the  phenomena  of  life,  in  a  specific  way,  which 
would  not  permit  of  any  blunders  in  dimensions. 

"  I  defined  the  classes  of  life  by  emphasizing  their  incontest- 
able, dimensional  characteristics:  plants  are  'Chemistry-bind- 
ing/ animals  are  'Space-binding,'  Humans  are  'Time-binding' 
classes  of  life. 

"These  definitions  have  the  peculiarity  that  they  make  it 
obvious,  that:  i  The  classes  of  life  have  different  dimensions, 
and  that  the  intermixing  of  dimensions,  as  in  mathematics  it 
makes  a  correct  solution  impossible,  so  in  life,  the  results  of  such 
elementary  mistakes,  produce  tragic  consequences. 

"  2  The  old  formula  on  which  our  civilization  is  built,  HUMAN 
equal  ANIMAL  plus  or  multiplied  by  SPARK  OF  DIVINITY 
is  basically  and  elementarily  wrong,  and  is  mathematical  non- 
sense, which  is  identical  to  such  an  absurdity  as  x  square  inches 
equal  y  linear  inches  plus  or  multiplied  by  z  cubic  inches. 

"  3  This  basically  wrong  formula  on  which  our  civilization 
rests,  is  the  cause  of  all  the  periodical  collapses,  wars  and  revolu- 
tions. 

"4  The  old  system  was  ouilt  on  animal  'space-binding' 
standards,  and  human  'time-binding'  impulses  were,  all  the 
time,  in  rebellion. 

"  5  As  the  theory  of  gravitation  and  the  calculus  made  engi- 
neers and,  mathematicians  masters  of  inanimate  nature,  so  these 


ENGINEERING  AND  TIME-BINDING         261 

i 

tangible  and  incontestable  definitions  give  them  a  positive  base 
which  will  enable  them  to  approach  and  solve  human  living 
problems,  by  establishing  the  mathematical  fact  that  man  is 
man,  not  an  animal. 

"  6  All  of  those  who  are  blinded  by  traditions  and  refuse  to 
investigate,  or  to  know  these  mathematical  truths,  are  a  danger 
to  humanity  in  directly  helping  to  obscure  issues,  and  in  helping 
to  maintain  the  faulty  structure  which,  as  in  the  past,  is  bound 
to  collapse  again  and  again  in  the  future. 

"7  The  duty  of  mathematically  thinking  people  is  to  throw 
such  light  on  this  problem  as  will  stop  the  stupid,  or  willfully 
destructive,  and  show  whether  they  are  working  for  or  against, 
mankind. 

"8  For  the  'time-binding'  class  of  life,  it  is  obvious  then 
that  in  this  dimension,  'time-binding'  is  the  natural  law,  and, 
if  understood  and  analysed,  it  is  the  highest  human  aim. 

"9  Such  'natural  laws'  as  'survival  of  the  fittest'  for  ani- 
mals, which  is  the  'survival  of  the  fittest  in  space,'  result  in 
fight,  or  the  survival  of  the  strongest;  whereas  such  a  law  to  be  a 
NATURAL  LAW  FOR  HUMANS,  must  be  in  the  human 
dimension  which  obviously  would  be  the  'Survival  of  the  fittest 
in  TIME,'  resulting  in  the  survival  of  the  best. 

"  10  All  known  facts  must  be  brought  to  the  light,  to  be 
summed  up,  and  correlated  by  mathematicians  and  engineers 
with  the  strictest  attention  to  dimensionality. 

"  II  All  of  our  ideas  have  to  be  revised;  the  animal  'space- 
binding'  standards  must  be  rejected  as  dangerous  and  destruc- 
tive, must  be  replaced  by  'time-binding'  standards,  which  will 
correspond  to  the  natural  impulses  and  NATURAL  LAWS  for 
humans. 

"  12  The  minds  of  mathematicians  and  engineers  are  by  edu- 
cation the  first  to  see  the  far  reaching  importance  of  the  facts 
disclosed  by  these  definitions,  and  just  this  realization  will  bring 
about  the  readjustment  of  values  in  life  to  a  human  dimension, 
wherein  pending  revolutions  and  wars  could  be  turned  into  evolu- 
tion, destruction  into  construction,  discord  into  accord  of  a 
common  aim. 

"  We  are  the  masters  of  our  own  destinies,  the  responsibility  is 
ours  to  correct  the  mistakes  of  our  ancestors  and  to  establish  a 
scientific  philosophy,  scientifically  true  laws,  scientifically  true 
ethics,  and  a  scientific  sociology,  which  will  form  one  unified 
science  of  man  and  his  function  in  the  universe,  a  science  which 
I  propose  to  call  'Human  Engineering/  Gantt's  methods 
would  be  the  first  practical  application  toward  this  end. 


262  APPENDIX  III 

"Gantt's  concept  of  rendering  service  is  scientifically  true 
because  it  is  'time-binding,'  and  therefore  true  for  the  human 
class  of  life  and  in  human  dimension.  This  is  why  Gantt's 
concepts  have  counted  for  so  much  and  will  survive  'IN  TIME.' " 
.  .  .  Discussion  by  Alfred  Korzybski  of  Mr.  W.  N.  Polakov's 
paper  "Principles  of  Industrial  Philosophy"  presented  at  the 
Annual  Meeting  of  The  American  Society  of  Mechanical  Engi- 
neers, New  York,  December  7-10,  1920. 

'  LITERATURE 

GANTT,  H.  L.: 

"Work,   Wages,   and   Profits."     The   Engineering  Magazine 
Co.,  1913.     N.  Y. 

"Industrial  Leadership."     Yale  University  Press.     1916. 

"Organizing   for   Work."     Harcourt,  Brace    &   Howe,  1919. 
N.  Y. 

Selection  from  Contents:  The  Engineer  as  the  Industrial 
Leader.  Economics  and  Democracy.  Democracy  in 
Production.  Democracy  in  the  Shop.  Democracy 
in  Management.  "The  Religion  of  Democracy." 

POLAKOV,  WALTER  N. : 

"Mastering    Power    Production."     The    Engineering   Maga- 
zine Co.     1921.     N.  Y. 

Selection  from  Contents:  The  Descent  of  the  Principle  of 
Production  for  Use.  The  Power  Industry  as  an  Econ- 
omic Factor.  Mastering  Labor  Problems.  (Conditions) 
Autonomous  Co-operation.  Aims  of  Labor.  Right  to  be 
Lazy  and  the  Right  to  a  Job.  Qualification  of  Men.  The 
Working  Day.  Fatigue.  UNIVERSAL  LABOR  (Cor- 
responding exactly  to  Time-binding — Author).  The  Position 
of  an  Engineer.  Mastering  Labor  Problems.  Com- 
pensation. The  Social  Aspect.  The  Economic  Aspect. 
The  Basis  of  Wages.  Incentive  Payments.  Profit  Shar- 
ing. Premium  Places.  Rewarding  Individual  Efforts. 
Two-rate  wages.  Energy  as  a  Commodity. 
"Principles  of  Industrial  Philosophy."  Presented  at  the 
Annual  Meeting  of  the  A.  S.  of  M.  E.,  December,  1920. 
"Equipment  and  Machinery."  Y.  M.  C.  A.  Association  Press. 

1921.     N.Y. 
"Organization  and  Management."    Y.  M.  C.  A.  Association 

Press.     1921.     N.  Y. 
"Quo  Vadis  America?"      In  preparation. 


ENGINEERING  AND  TIME-BINDING          263 

STEINMETZ,  CHARLES  P.: 

"America  and  the  New  Epoch."     Harper  &  Brothers.     1016. 

N.Y. 

Selection  from  Contents:  The  Individualistic  Era:  From 
Competition  to  Co-operation.  England  in  the  Individual- 
istic Era.  Germany  in  the  Individualistic  Era.  The 
Other  European  Nations  in  the  Individualistic  Era. 
America  in  the  Individualistic  Era.  Evolution:  Indus- 
trial Government. 

"Incentive  and  Initiative."     Y.  M.  C.  A.  Association  Press. 
1921.     N.Y. 

WOLF,  ROBERT  B.:  Pamphlets. 

"Individuality   in    Industry."     Bulletin   of  the   Society   to 

promote  the  Science  of  Management.     Vol.  I.     No.  4. 

August,  1915. 
"The   Creative   Workman."     Technical   Association   of  the 

Pulp  and  Paper  Industry.     1918.     N.  Y. 
"Non-Financial     Incentives."     Presented     at    the    Annual 

Meeting  of  the  A.  S.  of  M.  E.     December,  1918.     N.  Y. 
"Modern  Industry  and  the  Individual,"     A.  W.  Shaw  &  Co. 

1919.    N.Y. 

"Securing  the  Initative  of  the  Workman."     American  Eco- 
nomic Association.     1919.     N.  Y. 
"Creative   Spirit  in   Industry."    Y.  M.   C.  A.  Association 

Press.     1921.    N.  Y. 

MISCELLANEOUS  LIST  OFf  BOOKS 

VON  BERNHARDI,  General  F.:  "Germany  and  the  Next  War." 
E.  Arnold,  London.  1912. 

BRANDEIS,  Louis:  Other  People's  Money  and  How  the  Bankers 
Use  it."  F.  A.  Stokes,  N.  Y.  1914. 

THOMAS  FARROW  and  WALTER  CROTCH:  "The  Coming  Trade 
War."  Chapman  &  Hall,  London.  1916. 

HUEFFER,  FORD  MADDOX:  "When  Blood  is  Their  Argument." 
Hodder  &  Stoughton.  1915.  N.  Y. 

HAUSER,  HENRY:  "Germany's  Commercial  Grip  on  the  World, 
Her  Business  Methods  Explained."  E.  Nash  Co.,  London. 
1917. 

LAUGHLIN,  J.  L.:  "Credit  of  the  Nations."  Scribner's  Sons, 
N.  Y.  1918. 


264  APPENDIX  III 

MAETZU,  RAMIRO  DE:  "Authority,  Liberty  and  Function  in  the 
Light  of  War."    Geo.  Allen  and  Unwin. 

DELAISI,  FRANCIS:     French  Opinion,  "The  Inevitable  War." 
Small,  Maynard  &  Co.,  Boston.     1915. 

NEILSON,  FRANCIS:     English  Opinion,  "How  Diplomats  Make 
War."     B.  W.  Huebsch.     1916. 

BY  A  GERMAN   (German  Opinion).     "J* Accuse!"     Hodder  & 
Stoughton,  London.     1915. 


A     000  687  555     3 


